


Aspects and Avatars

by Aris Merquoni (ArisTGD)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - BDSM, F/M, M/M, Multi, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-10-31
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2017-10-25 02:52:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArisTGD/pseuds/Aris%20Merquoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A number of scenes from the Avatar D/s universe next door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Quest

Sokka rolled over onto his back and stared at the sky, then rolled onto his stomach and propped his chin on his hands. "There it is," he said mournfully. "Full moon."

Katara looked up from tending their campfire and smiled at her brother. Then she caught Aang's confused expression at the corner of her eye. "Don't mind him," she said. "He just turned fifteen a month ago, and he's already missed his first chance for his Aspect Quest."

"You can't meditate on the moon when the sun's out all night," Sokka grumbled. "And now we're out here in the middle of nowhere."

Actually they were a day's flight from the empty, quiet Southern Air Temple, but Katara didn't want to bring that up. Aang's rage and his haunted sadness both seemed to have passed, but she knew how these things could hover just beneath the surface.

Right now, though, he just tilted his head and asked, "What's your Aspect Quest?"

"Every member of the tribe, the first full moon after their fifteenth birthday, goes out that night with an adult of the tribe who guides them on a meditation for finding their Aspect," Sokka explained in a mildly frustrated sing-song. "It's an important coming-of-age ritual!"

"Sokka, it's not that important," Katara soothed. "You can do your ritual properly when we reach the North Pole. I'm sure someone there will be willing to guide you."

Sokka made a sound that was halfway between a whine and a moan, and flopped onto his back again.

"So, you guys meditate on the moon for your ritual?" Aang asked after the silence had gone on slightly too long.

"Yeah," Sokka said. "On the moon, and the ocean. So you have to do it on a full moon."

Aang frowned. "But what if you change your mind?"

"It's not about changing your mind!" Sokka said. "It's coming to a new realization of your inner... self!"

Katara folded her legs under her to sit more comfortably. "You can go as many times as you want," she said. "How did the monks at the Air Temple do it?"

Aang shrugged uncomfortably. "We... didn't?"

Sokka perked his head up. "What do you mean, you didn't?"

"Sokka, some people just know," Katara said, poking the fire again.

"Oh, I'm sorry, some of us didn't get the 'dominant' signal when we turned _eight_ ," Sokka snapped. "Some of us would _like_ a little self-reflection and... and... self-confidence!"

"You seem very confident to me, Sokka," Aang said.

"Thanks," Sokka said. He propped himself up on his elbow and squinted in Aang's direction. "So... what do your people do, if you don't have a ritual?"

Aang shrugged again. "We just... don't?"

Katara stared at him, a slight unease growing in her stomach. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Aang said, "I mean, nobody expected us to pick an Aspect. You just kinda... go with the flow."

Sokka looked even more confused. "But wait... without an Aspect, how do you..."

"I guess... just do what your partner wants you to do?" Aang said, scratching his head. He was blushing hard enough to show even in the dim firelight. "They didn't tell me about it much. I mean, we mostly just talked about letting go of physical desire and thinking ourselves onto a higher immaterial plane, and also I was twelve."

"You're still twelve," Katara pointed out. Aang just turned redder.

"But what if you meet someone?" Sokka said. "Someone you like? And... and you want to know if you have a future together, and if you'll want to try the same things, and you don't know what to say because you haven't been allowed to go on your Aspect Quest yet?"

"Sokka, I think you're projecting," Katara said. "Aang's too young for that yet."

"Heh," Aang said. "So... you haven't done yours either, then, Katara?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I'm a year behind Sokka, almost to the day." She shrugged. "I don't think I'm going to be surprised, though."

When she looked up, Aang was smiling at her. "You seem like you know what you want," he said.

She smiled back.

"Oh, well," Sokka moaned. "Maybe next month."

* * *

Aang thought that Master Pakku not teaching Katara Waterbending because she was a girl was stupid, and then not teaching her because she didn't officially know her Aspect yet was even stupider, but he wasn't necessarily thrilled with the chief's solution to the problem. "I thought this had to be done on a full moon," he said to Sokka as they bundled themselves up for the trek.

"Hey, if you can make an exception for anyone, you can make an exception for the Avatar," Sokka said. He was nearly bouncing on his toes as he wrapped an extra tunic over his clothing before pulling on his coat.

"But I don't need an exception," Aang said. "I mean, I appreciate it and all, but I don't think I need to go on your Quest."

"Just take it as an opportunity! Maybe you'll go and come back feeling exactly the same about who you are--like Katara--" Sokka grinned and rolled his eyes fondly at the thought of his sister. "Or maybe you'll learn something you weren't even expecting!" He hesitated. "Or... anything at all!"

Aang smiled and clapped Sokka on the shoulder in what he hoped was a manly, reassuring manner. "You're going to be fine, Sokka."

Sokka smiled back, then picked up his blanket. "Okay. I'm ready." He hesitated. "You sure you don't want a coat or something?"

"I'm okay," he said. "I don't get cold."

"Okay, well, come on," Sokka said. "Time to meet our Aspects!"

Aang shook his head and followed Sokka into the snow.

They met up with Katara outside, and followed Chief Arnook out under the quartered moon until they reached the cliffs overlooking the sea. Sokka spread out his blanket, and the three of them sat down as Arnook began to speak.

"Observe the moon," he said, gesturing at the bisected disc in the sky. He hesitated, then continued, "Even at half-full, she pushes and pulls the waters of the ocean, creating the tides and guiding the currents. She rises in the night sky and beckons, and the ocean follows her lead.

"But the moon does not change the ocean. The ocean absorbs the moon's energy and returns to her former self, unchanged, unhindered. The ocean's strength is in reacting, encompassing, supporting.

"Our strength comes from the spirit of the moon. Our life comes from the spirit of the ocean. They work together to keep the balance."

Aang inhaled and exhaled along with the flow of Arnook's words. They were familiar from lessons in his childhood, but the monks had never taught him he'd have to _pick._

"We all have both the spirit of the ocean and the spirit of the moon within us," Arnook continued. "When the spirit of the moon is ascendant, we find satisfaction on working our will on others, and call ourselves by the dominant Aspect. When the spirit of the ocean is ascendant, we take the submissive Aspect and find satisfaction in responding to another's will.

"Neither Aspect is more powerful than the other." Arnook looked stern, and Aang wondered how many young warriors came in with _that_ misconception. "Without the moon, the ocean lies flat and calm, but without the ocean, the moon controls nothing. The moon cannot touch what will not respond to her call, and the ocean cannot complete her cycles of tides and currents without a guide."

Arnook looked over the three of them, then smiled kindly. "Do not fear your inner nature," he said. "Finding your Aspect to be submissive does not make you weak, or without conviction. Finding yourself dominant does not make you cruel or uncaring. Your Aspect is your guide, not your prison.

"Now. Meditate. Think on the moon, and the ocean, and yourself. When you are ready, come back and find me, and we'll return to the city with your answer."

He inclined his head at them, and they bowed in return from their seats. Aang cleared his mind and looked up at the moon, trying to let Arnook's words lead his meditation.

After a couple minutes, Katara sighed in relief, then stood and started walking back toward the city. Sokka made a tiny noise of protest but didn't move.

Aang wasn't having much luck, himself. Every time he tried to concentrate on the moon or the ocean, or even both at the same time, he started getting second thoughts. _I might like that,_ he thought, _Giving someone directions, making them feel fulfilled because they know I'm in charge... but maybe I'd like taking orders better? From the right person?_

He had a sudden image of Katara shackling his wrists together with ice and had to swallow hard against a funny feeling in his stomach. But when he tried to chase that feeling further he got _other_ thoughts, thoughts like Katara kneeling in front of him saying "Of _course,_ Aang," or even thoughts of nobody kneeling at all, maybe they could just kiss and work something out from there...

It just felt like picking meant he had to give up something. Why did people keep expecting him to choose? For all Arnook talked about having parts of both Aspects in you at all times, obviously you were supposed to only do one thing at a time. Push _or_ pull. Dominant _or_ submissive. It was like saying you were going into a fight and only going to defend _or_ attack, not both. It was stupid!

Sokka picked that moment to exclaim happily and throw his arms in the air. Then he looked over at Aang, embarrassed, and winced. "Um. Sorry. I mean."

"It's okay," Aang said. "I don't know if this is working."

Sokka thought about that for a second. "Well, maybe it's just that you're too young," he offered. "I mean, normally you don't do this until you turn fifteen."

"I thought you said Katara knew when she was eight," Aang said suspiciously.

"Yeah, well..." Sokka scratched his head and looked back to where Katara was waiting with Arnook. "Maybe it's different for girls?"

"Yeah, maybe," Aang said. He stood up and stretched. "I don't think I'm going to get any more self-knowledge sitting here in the snow. Let's go back. Master Pakku will just have to get used to teaching someone without an Aspect."

Sokka gave him a reassuring grin. Aang picked up the blanket, and they walked back toward the city together.

The next morning at breakfast, Sokka's cheerful mood made Aang almost forget the doubt and the concern he'd had during their Quest. If it had cleared up Sokka's self-doubt, it had definitely been worth it.

That was, until Sokka made a face around a mouthful of crab, swallowed, and said, "But what if I picked wrong?"

Katara groaned.

"Shoulda been an Air Nomad, Sokka," Aang said. "Maybe you should memorize that meditation, just in case."


	2. Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it's not just someone's Aspect that gets in the way of learning.

"Is Aang just weird?" Toph asked Katara after half a day of training.

"What do you mean?"

Toph quirked her lips into an unhappy curl. "Well. I've been trying to teach him, and he just isn't reacting right. He's not buckling under and he's not responding to my challenges. He's just... weird."

Katara raised her eyebrow. "You're not trying to dominate him?"

Toph threw up her hands in exasperation. "I don't want to be his girlfriend," she said. "I just want him to _listen_ to me."

"Listen, Toph..." Katara came around to she could look Toph in the face, even though Toph didn't bother to acknowledge her. "Aang's an Airbender. And the Avatar," she added, since that was the magic phrase that had gotten through Master Pakku's reluctance. "Talking to him like he's submissive because you're his teacher won't work."

"I don't care what Aspect he has," Toph said, crossing her arms irritably. "I just want to know what he's going to do when I talk to him. I mean, he just has to be able to dominate rock. That's easy! It's dirt! It's used to being stepped on!"

"Aang doesn't like being boxed in."

"Well, then, he should bust out!"

Katara frowned. "Wait, I think our metaphors have gotten a little too mixed."

"No, I think I got it." Toph pointed straight at her face, which was still a little unnerving when she didn't even turn her head. "You say Twinkle Toes doesn't like facing things head-on or making definite commitments. Well, Earthbending is all about committing. So it's my job to teach him."

"Just... be gentle," Katara said.

"Sure," Toph said. Then she bellowed, "Breaktime's over! Earthbending class is back in session!"


	3. Many Kinds of Masochists

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mai likes pain. Zuko likes Mai. That's enough, right?

Mai liked pain. She liked floggers and crops and canes and paddles and fingernails. She liked bites and bruises and pulled hair. She liked wrestling and punching and slapping and she liked him.

Zuko was an incredibly lucky man. He was home. Father had forgiven him--welcomed him back into the fold. Azula had (almost) no leverage over him. And he had Mai.

He was the Fire Lord's son and heir, so it was expected that he'd find a willing submissive, preferably a woman, to play with. (Everyone knew there were exceptions to the Fire Nation norm that men were dominant and women were submissive. Nobody really liked talking about them. Unless they were praising Azula.) Mai passed scrutiny. She was noble, she was submissive, she was tall and beautiful and she wanted him in her bed.

So when it all got too much--when he couldn't take the thought of Uncle Iroh in jail, or Azula's smirks, or thoughts of the Avatar still alive--he let her take him in.

Mai lay face-down on the bed and he covered her legs and back in marks from his quirt until she didn't have an inch of skin that wasn't red, until his shoulder was sore from swinging. He heated the tips of his fingers and ran his nails down her back as she squirmed away from his touch and moaned. He roughly forced his fingers into her until she gasped and came, silently mouthing into her pillow and shaking. And then he fucked her, from behind, pulling on her hair and listening to her whispered encouragement--"Yes, oh yes, I--good, that's good, so good--"

 _Good job, Zuko, good job, good boy--_

He came with a strangled gasp, fingers so tight against Mai's hips that when he let go he worried he'd left bruises. She sighed contentedly when he flopped onto the bed beside her, and reached out and took his hand in hers.

"You want anything?" he asked when he got his breath back.

She chuckled into her pillow. "I think I've been taken care of."

"Okay." He stroked her back, feeling the heat radiating from her skin. "Thanks."

This was everything he wanted, wasn't it?

Zuko tried to be content with that.


	4. Reorientations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko has 99 problems and his Aspect is just one.

When Zuko defied his father during the eclipse and set out after the Avatar, this time to help rather than attack, he knew he was making a major life change. He felt renewed, with new and clear purpose, calm and sure and finally with a true direction. Destined.

The incredibly awkward reception mostly cleared him of that misconception, but he didn't realize how different he _felt_ until Katara cornered him.

And he probably should have been thinking about how he shouldn't be surprised that she wasn't going to trust him, how he needed to get _good_ at this "being good" thing. But as her eyes narrowed and he stood there in shock, all his brain was coming up with was... thoughts.

Inappropriate thoughts.

Thoughts that--oh, fire and flood, he needed to be alone, he needed Katara to turn around without looking _down_ and leave _right then_ \--

He didn't even hear the last few words she said, even though her meaning was clear enough. Finally, she turned on her heel and left, slamming the door behind her.

Zuko collapsed on his bed, on top of the still-folded bedding, squinched his eyes shut tight and tried not to shove his hands down his pants. His resolve held about ten seconds, and when he finally gave in he came so hard and so fast he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him and he saw stars.

He wanted--he _wanted_ Katara to come back and pin him to the bed. He wanted to prove to her that he was worthy however she wanted. He wanted--oh, _spirits_ he wanted to _submit_ to her.

What had _happened_ to him?

It was going to be okay, he reasoned. It was going to be fine, it was just a... a phase or something. He was trying to be accepted by the Avatar's friends, of _course_ he was going to be feeling... weird.

This was probably totally normal.

He adjusted his dick in his pants and pulled his hands out, grimacing at the stickiness. Sokka had said something about lunch. He'd have time to clean up, and then he'd eat something, and then he'd be fine. He'd train the Avatar in Firebending, and everything would be okay.

Of course, the next day he discovered his Firebending didn't work.

* * *

"How goes the Jerkbending lessons?" Sokka asked, just before Zuko's patience was about to snap.

Zuko spent a moment reminding himself to not throw fireballs at the Avatar's friends, before it occurred to him that if he could still throw fireballs, he wouldn't be nearly as angry. "Leave us alone!"

"Okay, okay," Sokka said nonchalantly.

"Hey, Sokka," Aang butted in. "When's the next full moon again?"

Zuko blinked at the non-sequitor, but Sokka seemed to know what he was talking about, because he blushed ocher-red and stammered, "Um, y'know, five days from now, why do you ask?"

"I dunno," Aang said innocently. "Just curious, I guess."

Sokka muttered something else under his breath, turned sharply, and left.

"What was that all about?" Zuko asked.

Aang laughed nervously. "Oh, nothing. It's a Water Tribe thing." He hesitated, then said, "So I never asked... how do you figure out your Aspect in the Fire Nation?"

"What?!" Zuko said. Or yelped. Yeah, in hindsight, that sounded like a yelp.

"I mean, not--like, I mean, how do you _discover_ your Aspect, I guess?" Aang blushed and looked away. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to use the wrong words. I don't mean to say it like it's a choice. Or... like it's not important. Or something."

Zuko blinked at him. "You don't," he finally said.

Aang perked up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Boys are dominant, girls are submissive." He frowned. "Except for the exceptions. Like my sister."

Aang had gone from looking excited to looking... highly disturbed. "Wait... you get _assigned_?"

"Not assigned--I mean, guys are just naturally... I mean... you know, because girls... they want... different things... than guys..." Zuko said, nervously watching Aang's expression get more and more appalled as he added more words to that sentence. "Um."

"Really?" Aang finally said.

"That's... just how it works," Zuko said.

"Wow," Aang said. "I didn't think anything was more messed up than the Earth Kingdom, but you guys take the prize."

"Hey!"

Aang blushed again. "Sorry. But I mean... what if you don't _want_ that?"

Zuko swallowed. "You hide all signs away and try not to think about it too hard?"

Now Aang just looked distressed. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"You're probably right." Zuko scratched the back of his neck. "But what else would you do?"

"Well," Aang said, "The Water Tribe has this ritual on the full moon, called an Aspect Quest? You can do it as many times as you like. So at least you can, y'know, change your mind." He hesitated, then blurted, "And of course in the Air Temples we didn't make people pick at all."

Zuko blinked at him, then felt slightly queasy. Of course, Aang was _twelve_ , and years away from when that sort of thing would be _important_ , but Zuko had always figured that he'd be... well, a dominant, honestly, because he was a guy and he was the _Avatar_. But not being a dominant _or_ a submissive? Not having an Aspect at all? That was... it was...

"That sounds kinda nice, actually," he finally said.

Aang grinned. "Thanks! You're the first person who's not an Air Nomad to say so."

Zuko smiled back, trying to take a few deep breaths and concentrate. So if the Avatar didn't even have an Aspect, and he was already a really powerful Air-Water-and-Earthbender, obviously Zuko's problem wasn't some sort of failure to live up to being a dominant. The problem was somewhere else.

* * *

Since figuring out his Aspect problem didn't solve his Firebending problem, Zuko wasn't too surprised when solving his Firebending problem didn't solve his Aspect problem. Disappointed, not surprised.

"Hey, um, Sokka?" he asked a few days later, after dinner.

It was still awkward trying to talk to anyone except for Aang. Most of the rest of the gang looked surprised whenever he tried to open a conversation. Sokka covered it up pretty well, at least. "Yeah?"

Zuko bit his lip for a second, trying to plan out the conversation in his head a little bit better than he normally did. Then he blurted, "Can you show me how to do an Aspect Quest?"

"Woah, woah, woah," Sokka said. "How do you know about that?"

"I... um," Zuko said. "Aang mentioned it. He was asking... I mean, I said that we don't really... I just want to try it?"

Sokka was eying him dubiously. "You're... Fire Nation," he said.

"Yeah, but... Aang's an Air Nomad, and he says he went on one at the North Pole."

"He's the Avatar," Sokka pointed out. "And apparently it didn't work right, anyway."

"Um." Zuko licked his lips nervously. "Oh."

Sokka looked at him with narrow eyes for another moment, then said, "Doesn't the Fire Nation have its own ritual, anyway?"

"Not... really," Zuko admitted. "You sort of get... assigned."

Sokka raised an eyebrow.

"Um, it's just sort of assumed that guys will be dominant and girls will be submissive," Zuko said. "It's... just the way things are."

"Woah," Sokka said, holding up his hands. "Don't let Katara hear you say that, or she'll show you a dominant Aspect so hard it'll hurt for a week."

 _Really? That might be kind of WAIT HE'S HER BROTHER,_ Zuko's mind supplied, and he really really hoped he wasn't blushing hard enough to show. "I... I'll keep that in mind."

"Hmm. Well..." Sokka was looking thoughtful, now. "I guess if you don't have an Aspect ritual in the Fire Nation, I guess you should learn one, and I _was_ planning on going out anyway..."

"Thanks!" Zuko said.

"If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it properly," Sokka said decisively. "Tomorrow night we're gonna take Appa to the shore. Dress warm."

So the next night Zuko grabbed a spare blanket and followed Sokka onto the sky bison's back. "Yip yip," Sokka said, and Appa grumbled good-naturedly and rose into the silver-suffused evening sky.

They landed a short distance from the beach, and walked down onto the sand in a sheltered cove. The moon was high and the clouds were thin streamers of gray-white, icy and distant. Zuko spread out the blanket and sat down, then looked up at Sokka expectantly.

Sokka shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then said, "Okay, I've never actually led one of these things, and it's been a while since I got the formal speech."

"Oh," Zuko said.

"But it's okay! I remember most of it!" Sokka cleared his throat and pointed up at the moon. "Observe the moon," he began.

Zuko looked up at the moon. It was high and bright in the sky, a tiny circle of light. "Okay."

"No, I mean..." Sokka took a deep breath. "The moon pushes and pulls on the ocean. Without the moon, we don't have tides. But without the ocean, the moon wouldn't be able to... push the ocean." He grimaced. "I'm already messing this up."

"I'm sorry," Zuko said after a second. "It's because I'm here."

"No, it's just..." Sokka sighed, then sat down on the blanket next to him. "We got the whole formal speech from Chief Arnook of the Northern Water Tribe. And it was great! Everything made sense. And... now I don't even remember it right. Maybe I've been screwing it up ever since."

Zuko snuck a glance out of the corner of his eye. Sokka was looking up at the moon sadly, like he was waiting for bad news.

"What do you do normally?" he finally asked.

Sokka started. "Oh, uh, I just... think about stuff?"

"Like what kind of stuff?"

Sokka licked his lips, then pointed out toward the ocean. "Well, like--sometimes I get out here and it's easy. I just _look_ and I know--oh, right, I _really_ identify with the ocean. Or the moon. Or whatever."

Zuko nodded slowly. "So the moon's dominant, then?"

"Well, yeah," Sokka said. "But... like, your Aspect doesn't necessarily mean you're like that all the time, right? And the moon's only _dominant_ because she's got the ocean to influence. Without one you can't have the other."

Zuko frowned. "So you... can't really know if you're dominant without a submissive?"

"Well, not like that. I mean, you _know_ what your Aspect is even if you're, not..." Sokka blushed and just let that sentence trail off. "But if you're not actually _doing_ anything with your Aspect, then does it really matter? You're still the same person."

"I thought it mattered," Zuko said. "But now I'm not sure. I mean, Aang says he doesn't even _have_ an Aspect."

Sokka thought that over for a second. "Aang... knows who he is," he finally said. "I don't think I could do that if I didn't know my Aspect, but... he doesn't seem to want that."

Zuko licked his lips. They were rough with chap and he fought against the urge to bite at them. "For a long time... being a dominant was something I had to do. To make my father happy. But that was really just... submitting to him, wasn't it?"

"Each Aspect has parts of the other in it," Sokka said, straightening his spine for a moment. "A dominant Aspect needs to listen to the submissive, or you can't do your job properly. And a submissive Aspect doesn't mean you can't stand up for yourself."

"In the Fire Nation, everyone thinks being a submissive means you're weak," Zuko said quietly.

Sokka shook his head. "That's ridiculous," he said. "That's like saying the ocean's weak because there are Waterbenders. Being able to take anything that a dominant gives you, and to take pleasure in it? That's _amazing._ "

He thought about Mai, flushed and sweaty with bruises on her thighs, and felt himself blush. "Yeah. I guess I never thought about it that way."

"Your Aspect is supposed to guide you," Sokka said firmly. "Having a dominant or a submissive Aspect doesn't mean you're a better or worse person. Or a strong or a weak person. It's just there to help you understand yourself better. And maybe you'll figure it out and you'll keep the same Aspect for most of your life--like they do in the Earth Kingdom." He frowned a bit. "Or maybe you won't figure it out. Or you'll change as you get older. But it's not supposed to hurt you."

Zuko nodded. The moon was dipping closer to the horizon, now, growing fuller and more golden.

"So when I've figured it out," he asked, "Do I have to, like... is there an announcement I have to make?"

"What? No," Sokka said. "It's not public. It's something you do for you." He hesitated. "I mean, if you're seeing someone they might want to know. But that's not..."

"Right," Zuko said, cutting off that train of thought. "I was just curious." He hesitated, then asked, "So what do you do if you come back from one of these and you... don't match any more?"

Sokka shrugged. "Um, depends? Sometimes people wait. Sometimes... there are a lot of groups of three, you know?"

"Oh." He stared up at the moon and tried not to blush. "That... makes sense."

"Yyyyeah. So." Sokka coughed. "I think we actually covered most of the basics of the speech. Uh... how do you feel?"

"Better. Good!" Zuko smiled in relief. "I feel... good."

And he did. Maybe this hadn't been the traditional 'thinking about stuff' that Sokka was used to, but Zuko was pretty sure he had his answers. About his Aspect, and about other stuff, too.

"Great!" Sokka stood up, and Zuko scrambled after him. "I think we can call this a success."

Zuko grinned. "Thanks, Sokka."

"No problem." Sokka waited while Zuko scooped up the blanket, then walked with him back up the beach toward Appa. "But in return, maybe you can help me with something?"

"Sure?"

Sokka took a deep breath, then asked, "What do you know about where the Fire Nation sends prisoners of war?"

He didn't want to talk about that--about the awful things the Fire Nation did to people who betrayed the throne, or who were captured in battle. But on the way back, Sokka got it out of him--the Boiling Rock, the volcanic lake with a tiny prison island inside. Zuko had never been there, had never wanted to go, but he wasn't going to let Sokka plan his jailbreak alone.

"We should ask Katara," Sokka said as Appa coasted to a landing. "She _loves_ jailbreaking. And she's good at it."

Zuko was considering that--heck, it would only help to have a Waterbender along, assuming they could all sneak in--when like a summoned spirit, Katara appeared alongside the air bison, looking furious. "Where were you off to?"

"Uhh, Aspect Quest?" Sokka said.

Katara pointed an accusatory finger at Zuko. "And what was _he_ doing?"

"He asked to come along," Sokka said nervously. He looked back in Zuko's direction, and Zuko tried to ignore his growing feeling of unease.

"Augh!" Katara shouted. "It's not enough that your people had to raid our village for years, it's not enough that you _personally_ chased us all across the world, but now you're taking our traditions as well?"

"It's not like that!" Zuko protested. "I just--"

"What? You just thought you'd dabble? Pick up some tips from the savages? Well, I hope you got what you were looking for!" Katara glared at him, then hissed through her teeth and turned around to storm off.

"Katara, wait!" Sokka called after her. He looked back at Zuko guiltily. "I'll talk to her."

Zuko stared down at his feet. "I think I deserved that."

"No--no. I'll talk to her." Sokka jumped down from Appa's saddle, then looked up at Zuko again. "I don't think she's going to want to come along on the jailbreak, though."

* * *

Zuko thought that Katara might like him better once she saw him getting along with her brother. That didn't work.

He thought she might like him better after he and Sokka got her dad out of prison, which was really impressive and took a lot of effort, he felt he should point out. But no dice.

And he thought maybe he'd get a chance to talk things out once they were done fighting Azula--once _he_ was done _holding Azula off_ so they could all escape. But every time he tried to say something to her, he just got confused--and then angry he was confused--and then--

"Everyone else seems to trust me, now!" he yelled, and then realized about a second too late exactly how stupid that sounded.

"Oh, excuse me? I was the first one who trusted you!" Katara snapped at him.

... It really didn't help that whenever Katara yelled at him, his first instinct was to fall to his knees.

It would have been a lot easier if she just felt he deserved _punishment_ for what he'd done before. That would be fine! He could get behind that! He could actually, really... really. That would be a relief.

But she didn't want to punish him. She wanted him gone.

He fretted over the problem all the way to Sokka's tent. He was going to have to do _something_ to get Katara's trust, or they'd just be fighting each other all the time he was supposed to be training Aang. And he had to do that! And... he was starting to feel welcomed and accepted--by everyone else--and he _liked_ having friends. He didn't want to give that up.

He was lost in his own thoughts enough that he didn't notice Suki until he bumped into her.

"Sorry," he said.

"Oops!" she said, stepping backwards swiftly. She gestured feebly at Sokka's tent. "Wrong tent."

He stared, then felt his face getting warm. "Oh. Um. Were you going to--"

"No! No, just... walking," she stammered, and backed away. "Just leaving now."

Zuko stared after her for a few seconds, then shrugged and pushed open the tent flap.

And found himself face to face with Sokka, who was wearing a loincloth, wrist restraints, and a bucket of rose petals.

He blinked. Sokka blinked. "Uh--Zuko! I. Wasn't expecting anyone! No. This is just... relaxing! Aromatherapy!" He held up his hands, noticed they were tied together, and nearly broke a wrist in his haste to start untangling the knots.

"Uh..." Zuko said, then, "I thought... Suki said... she was a submissive?"

"IDON'TKNOWWHATYOU'RETALKINGABOUT!" Sokka squeaked as he finally got the restraints off and grabbed his shirt.

Zuko shook his head, resolved to put the whole thing out of his mind, and sat down on the floor. "Your sister hates me," he said.

"What? Katara?" Sokka said, making the wrist cuffs vanish somewhere under his sleeping roll. "Katara doesn't hate people! I mean, she doesn't hate you. She might hate some people in the Fire Nation--I mean, specific people! Like people who raided our village." He looked back at Zuko, then winced. "I mean, people who raided our village and then DIDN'T reform. People who kept trying to kill us. Not--! I mean--"

"I think--" Zuko cut him off. "I know what I can do to help, but I need to ask you something. I need you to tell me about the people who attacked your village the day your mother died."

As soon as he got his information Sokka shooed him out the door, and Zuko realized belatedly he'd probably taken advantage of his friend. One of his very, very few friends. He clapped his hand to his face just as Sokka stuck his head out of the tent and whispered, "Suki! You can--er. Hi, Zuko. Nothing... nothing going on--"

"I'm leaving," he reassured Sokka, and hurried out of earshot.


	5. What Orientations?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suki would be just fine if Sokka was the "Meat, Sarcasm, and Awesome Sex" guy.

Suki finally slipped into Sokka's tent to find him huddling under the blanket.

"Is he gone?" Sokka moaned.

"Yeah, he left like ten minutes ago," Suki said. "Are you okay?"

Sokka groaned theatrically and threw off the blanket. There were still a few crushed rose petals on his chest and trapped in his loincloth, but most of them had been knocked to the floor. "I have rarely been so mortified in my life," he said.

"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't that bad," she said.

"My _wrists_ were tied together," he said, jabbing his wrists out for her inspection. "What if he thought I was coming on to him?"

Suki giggled and sat down next to him. "I think he knows you're taken."

"I guess," Sokka said, blushing. "I just don't want people to think I'm some kind of sex-mad loony. I like being the meat and sarcasm guy, I don't want to be the meat and uncontrollable libido guy."

"Sokka, they're your friends," she said gently.

"Yeah, you're right." He perked up. "And we can always escape to Kyoshi Island if we need to."

Suki smiled at him. "That's what I like about you, Sokka. Always planning ahead." She held up the manacles she'd dug out from his mattress. "Now, if I remember correctly, you'd been kidnapped by the Fire Nation, and I was coming to rescue you."

"Yeah, that's right," he said. She slipped the restraints over his wrists and tied them on. "You're my hero."

She cinched the restraints on tight and pushed him back on the bed. He toppled ungracefully to sprawl on his back, staring up at her.

"Oh, Sokka!" she cried, clapping her hands to her mouth. "Thank goodness I found you before they gave you to Princess Azula!"

Sokka's mouth worked, and then he made an incredibly distressed face. "That... yes, that thought is incredibly terrifying," he said. "Incidentally, are you sure Zuko's completely out of--"

Suki shrugged out of her top and dropped it on the floor of the tent.

"... Thank you so much for rescuing me," Sokka squeaked after a moment.

She grinned and dropped to her knees, crawling forward until she was leaning over him. He looped his bound hands around her neck and pulled her down for a kiss.

"Mmmmm," he said when they pulled apart. "Suki, I have a little problem."

"What's that?"

He nodded significantly down his body. "I don't think I'm going to be able to escape with this erection."

She looked down at the bulge in his loincloth and raised her eyebrows appreciatively. "That certainly is... a significant and massive impediment."

"It's a hard one, that's for sure."

"So I see," she said. She reached down and started pulling at the loops of cloth. "A challenge of this, um... girth... is going to require some serious attention."

Sokka made a distractedly happy noise when she wrapped her fingers around his shaft. "Oooooooh, yeah, serious attention. Gotta, um, cover every inch of the problem, y'know, all up and down the length."

Suki nodded. "Indeed. Only after completely encircling a problem can we massage it until a solution appears."

Sokka took a couple of deep breaths, then said, very sternly, "Suki, in order to keep us from a terrible fate at the hands of the Fire Nation, I have to order you to suck my cock."

"Okay!" she agreed, and scooted down his torso.

She hadn't had much practice in this before meeting Sokka, but she was swiftly making up for lost time. As often as possible. And the feeling when Sokka looped his hands behind her head, but couldn't quite do anything else because his hands were still tied together? _Incredibly_ hot. Suki squeezed her thighs together and moaned happily around Sokka's dick.

"Oooh, that's great--yeah, that--oh, Suki," Sokka said dreamily. "Oh, I'm gonna--I--"

Suki swallowed fiercely as Sokka groaned and threw his head back and came, hard. He lay panting on the bed as she climbed up and curled up next to him.

"A plus rescuing job," he finally said. "Excellent."

"Thanks."

"I think that deserves a reward, don't you?"

"If you say so."

"I do say so," Sokka said. "And further, I say your reward is cunnilingus."

"Oh," Suki said, lying back and pushing off her trousers. "I can get behind that."

Sokka grinned and flipped over to nestle his face between her legs. He couldn't move his wrists very far apart, but he could use his fingers well enough, and his tongue, and within minutes she was biting her lip to keep from screaming loud enough to bring _everyone_ running.

"Oooh... ohh, Sokka," she sighed as he rested his face on her stomach. "I... do you want me to untie your hands?"

"I'm good for now, thanks," he said into her belly button, and she felt another flush of lust, even after being so thoroughly sated. "Say, did you bring that... thing?"

Suki couldn't keep from grinning. "Yes I did. Do you want me to fuck you?"

"Yes, I do!" Sokka flopped back onto the mattress on his back and wiggled his fingers at her. "Get on that."

"Yes, sir," she said. And Sokka beamed at her so happily when she said it that she just had to sit and bask in his smile for a moment before pulling the lingam and harness out of the pouch on her belt.

"You are," Sokka said breathily as she cinched the harness on, "so _incredibly_ hot." His own erection had returned and he was stroking his fingers idly, if slightly awkwardly, up and down the length of his cock.

"You wanna be face-up or hands and knees?" Suki asked as she poured oil on her fingers. She capped the tiny jar and tucked it back in her belt so it wouldn't get lost.

"Mmm, hands and knees worked pretty good last time," Sokka said. He rolled over onto his front, got his legs under him, then looked back at her and wiggled his ass enticingly. "C'mon, don't make me wait!"

Suki allowed herself another moment to admire the curve of Sokka's back and the muscular lines of his legs and behind. Then she knelt in position behind him, balancing herself with one hand on his hip and guiding the oil-slicked dildo into position with the other.

"MmmmmmmmMMMMMmmm," Sokka said, or something like it, as she pressed her hips forward and filled him. "Oh, yeah, that's it, Suki, fuck."

"Happy to," she said, and rocked her hips back and forward again.

"Oooooh, yes! Oh, Suki--you're gonna have to reach around me, I can't move my hands," Sokka pointed out.

It wasn't _easy_ to balance herself on her knees, continue the rolling movement of her hips, and reach around Sokka's waist until she could grip his dick in her slippery hand, but she had been trained to a peak physical condition and was a master of martial arts, and that applied far better than she ever would have guessed.

And it was deeply, unfathomably satisfying to give Sokka exactly what he asked for when he was on his elbows and knees with his wrists bound together. "Oh, yeah," he said, "harder," and she pitched her hips against his as hard as she could until he cried out and came in her hand.

She took deep breaths and pulled out slowly. Sokka hummed and flopped back on the bed, ignoring the wet spot. "Excellent," he said dreamily. "Wonderful. Okay. Now you should untie my hands."

Suki wiped the excess oil off her hands and reached out to undo her knots. "Feeling better?"

"Oh, yes," he said. "Much."

"Not worried about being the awesome sex guy as well as the meat and sarcasm guy?"

"That _was_ awesome sex," Sokka admitted. "Yeah. I think I could get behind that."

"Good," Suki said. She lay down next to him and curled up into his warmth. "I'm glad."


	6. The Rest of the Way to Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gang move from figuring out each other to figuring out the rest of the world.

Katara had to admit, when Zuko put his mind to tracking someone, he really gave it his all. Even when that person was another member of the Fire Nation. Though, she admitted grudgingly, he'd pretty much burned his bridges with his homeland there.

Ha. Burned. Right.

She wasn't thinking all that clearly when they finally zeroed in on the Southern Raiders. The flag on the ship and the sight of the men on board--so like the same soldiers who had invaded her home again and again--Katara's vision turned red and she raised the sea in revenge, to punish them as she had been too weak to do the last time she'd met them.

She wasn't weak any more. She was the last Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, and she had all of her people's power running through her veins under this full moon.

And when she and Zuko reached the leader of the raiders, and he professed not to know her--to be _ignorant_ of his crimes--she took that power and turned it all on him. Reached inside of him and bent him to her will.

Zuko was staring at her, she realized faintly as she pulled the man to the floor. And when he stepped over to continue interrogating their captive, he sounded shaken.

Bloodbending probably wasn't something Zuko had ever encountered before. He was silent on the subject all the way to Yon Rha's home. Katara put it out of her mind. She still had a job to do.

But maybe the guilt and unease were worrying at the back of her mind. Maybe Zuko's startled look had gotten to her. Maybe Aang's words finally penetrated. Something made her hesitate, just at the last, and take a good long look at what she was doing. She made a decision, and let her rage fall to the ground like rain.

"Are you going to be okay?" was the first thing Zuko asked her when they were safely in the air.

She nodded.

He hesitated, then carefully said, "So, when we were back at the ship, that thing you did--"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said shortly.

"Okay," he said.

"I shouldn't have done it," she said. "I know that. I didn't want to learn it. I meant to only use it in emergencies."

"Okay," Zuko said again, surprised.

"I just--" she balled up her fists and threw her hands over her head. "I was so _angry_ I just--"

Zuko swallowed and looked away. "I know what you mean."

Katara took a few deep breaths, then uncurled and looked over in Zuko's direction. He wasn't looking at her. "It's called Bloodbending," she said. "I learned it from a woman from my tribe."

He turned toward her, slightly. It was hard to read any expression on his face from this angle, since she could barely see past his scar. "I thought there weren't any Waterbenders in the Southern Water Tribe except you?"

"There weren't," Katara said. "I met her in the Fire Nation."

Zuko swallowed loud enough she could hear. "Right."

"She was taken in a raid," she said, words tumbling out like water. "She was imprisoned in the Fire Nation for years with the other Waterbenders. And she practiced with what she had."

"With other people."

"Yes."

Zuko swallowed again. "So you can just... reach inside people... and make them do what you want them to?"

Katara shuddered. "It's only possible on the full moon."

"That just seems..." he paused, thinking. "I mean, that's a lot of power to have over someone."

Oh. Of _course._ Of course he'd be nervous about someone else with a dominant Aspect--a woman, at that, since apparently proper women didn't _do_ that in the Fire Nation--having the power to just take him over like that. "I don't want to ever do it again," she said firmly. "I just thought--I thought he was the man who killed my mother."

"Right," Zuko said, voice unsteady. "I guess those are... really special circumstances."

Katara nodded, relieved. It sounded like he understood. "Exactly." She smiled. Her spirits felt a little lighter, and Zuko smiled a bit back. "Thanks. I'm glad you understand."

"So," Zuko said after a moment. "I thought of a place we can hide out for a while. I haven't had a chance to run it past anyone else, but it's sort of on our way back..."

"Sounds great," Katara said. "Let's take a look."

* * *

The bald lady thing was bad enough, Aang thought. But watching stage-Zuko and stage-Katara make kissy faces at each other...

"Oh, Prince Zuko!" the actress on stage cried. "You're just so dominant! I've never met anyone like you before!"

Well, okay, maybe that wasn't much like Katara.

"I've always been a Firebender," stage-Zuko intoned, "But I've always admired the flexibility of Water."

"What. Is. That?!" Katara hissed.

"It's a... Fire Nation thing..." Zuko stammered.

"The _Avatar?_ " stage-Katara said, loudly enough to get Aang's attention. He looked back to the stage in time to see stage-Katara swooning at stage-Zuko's feet. "Why, he's like a little _brother_ to me! I certainly wouldn't ever _submit_ to him."

Aang felt a painful burning sensation start right behind his left eye. It felt like he might almost start involuntarily Firebending.

"Well," Zuko said onstage, scooping Katara into his arms, "Let me demonstrate the dominance of the Fire Nation!"

Aang stood up quickly and left. He needed to meditate. He needed to meditate a lot. He needed more inner calm than a flock of monks on Jonja smoke to get through this one.

The night air and a few repetitions of Monk Gyatso's favorite chant sequence helped get his immediate reactions under control, but he still felt slightly off-center. Wrong. Unhappy.

It was obvious that the play's author had got Katara all wrong if he thought she was going to suddenly change Aspects and go gooey over a dominant. But Zuko _did_ know his Aspect. At least, he said he did. At least, everyone else seemed to think they had an Aspect, just one, that didn't change except under _very specific circumstances_ , which was just... weird!

But not having an Aspect was for people who weren't _of age_ yet, in the Water Tribe. And maybe... maybe Katara did really think of him as a little brother because he didn't have one.

Maybe without a fixed Aspect she'd never see him as someone to fall in love with, because he'd always be a child to her. A child who couldn't make up his mind.

Aang buried his head in his hands and tried to think of anything else.

* * *

Zuko hadn't really given much thought to what would happen if they won.

He'd believed for most of his life, whether or not that belief was justified, that he'd eventually inherit the throne from his father and be the next Fire Lord. Even when he'd been in exile in the Earth Kingdom, he'd sort of assumed that one day his father would find him and say, well done, you've worked hard enough and you've been good enough and you get to come back now. It was only when he'd actually confronted his father on the Day of Black Sun, and left to join the Avatar, that he'd finally let go of that last belief, and he hadn't bothered to make any new plans.

That was his excuse, anyway, for his state of shock when Uncle Iroh suggested he take the throne. Shock, terror, confusion, and more shock.

"Me?" he finally said.

"Yes, Zuko," Uncle Iroh said. He didn't look like he was joking. He didn't _sound_ like he was joking. "You restored your own honor, and only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation."

Zuko looked around at the others--at his friends--who all seemed to be agreeing with Uncle Iroh. "I... I want to help," he finally said. "But I don't think the Fire Nation is going to follow a Fire Lord who's a submissive."

Katara dropped her chopsticks. Sokka bit down on his chopsticks and yelped in pain.

Toph just tilted her head at him and said, "Well, maybe they _should!_ "

"Yes," Iroh said thoughtfully. Zuko stared at him, startled. "A dominant temperament has hardly guided the Fire Nation well in the past. Do not doubt yourself, Prince Zuko; you are the leader the Fire Nation needs."

Uncle didn't even look surprised. Zuko wondered how obvious he'd been to everyone except himself.

"I'll try," he finally said.

Even though they had gathered that morning to make important plans over breakfast, Zuko wasn't entirely sure that he could swallow this one. The rice and turtle-duck eggs felt like they had turned to rock in his stomach. It was just too big. Assume the throne? Redirect the Fire Nation? That was looking too far ahead.

"Azula will be waiting for you," Uncle Iroh said, and Zuko's mind snapped back into focus.

His sister. Now, there was a good, solid, short-term problem. And if she killed him, he could go back to not worrying about the future. "I can handle Azula."

"Not alone," Uncle didn't quite contradict him.

"... Right." He didn't actually want this to be a suicide mission. "Katara? How would you like to help me put Azula in her place?"

Katara had retrieved her chopsticks, and her smile was confident. "It would be my pleasure."

Oh, that probably shouldn't be giving him such a thrill. She was helping him on a dangerous mission, _nothing else._

Katara didn't say anything else to him until they were on their way to the Fire Nation on Appa. "I know this isn't the time..."

"We've got a few more hours of flying," he pointed out. "I could use something to distract me from thinking about Azula."

She nodded. "Well... It's just, we've spent this whole time thinking your Aspect was dominant. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" he asked. "I spent my whole _life_ thinking I was a dominant. I just thought there was something wrong with me."

"There's nothing _wrong_ with you," she said forcefully. "There's nothing wrong with having a submissive Aspect."

"I know," he said. "Sokka helped me a lot with that."

She smiled. "I'm glad." After a moment, she laughed. "I guess that 'Boy in the Iceberg' play got a lot more wrong than I thought."

Zuko winced. "I told you, it's a Fire Nation thing. Even an exiled, banished prince has to be more dominant than _anyone else ever_ or the whole country's in trouble." He thought about that for a second, then smiled. "And you know what? I sorta hope they're right."

* * *

And then they won.

After Zuko's coronation, the six of them took a few days to fly to Ba Sing Se to meet up with the White Lotus society and do some strategizing.

Aang got a large piece of parchment and divided it into four parts, then carefully wrote "Water", "Earth", "Fire", and "Air" at the top of each part. He put the whole thing down on Iroh's pai sho table and grinned up at his circle of friends. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I've called you all here today..."

Sokka held up his hand. "I vote we make 'Fire' Zuko's problem."

"Well, that's sort of what I wanted to talk about," Aang said as Zuko made an annoyed noise. "Beating Fire Lord Ozai and stopping the devastation of the Earth Kingdom was a big job, but undoing the damage of the War is going to be even harder," Aang said. He looked down at his empty piece of paper and gulped, then said, "So I want to figure out some priorities, since, y'know, I'm the Avatar, and that's my job..."

"Well," Zuko said, "Jeong Jeong said he'll stay in the Fire Nation as my adviser. Even though he left the navy, a lot of the generals and admirals still respect him. So between the two of us, we should be able to handle the Fire Nation military."

Aang nodded, and wrote "Zuko's problem" under "Fire."

"The Water Tribes should be in pretty good shape," Katara said, "Now that the Fire Nation has stopped raiding, I mean, and we're back in contact again."

"Yeah, and with dad and Master Pakku back at the South Pole, we should be able to find all the outlying villages and rebuild stuff," Sokka said.

Aang wrote "Under control for now" under "Water" and turned to "Earth." "Okay. Well, this is going to be the big problem, I think."

Zuko leaned over the paper, his lips pursed in concentration. "There are a lot of Fire Nation colonies in Earth Kingdom territory," he said. "I mean, a lot a lot. And some of those people have been here their whole lives. It's not just stolen territory, it's a place where people live."

"But that land belongs to the Earth Kingdom," Toph said.

"I know," Zuko said. "I'm just saying it's not as simple as packing everyone up and leaving."

"Well, maybe the Earth King will have some suggestions," Aang said.

Iroh cleared his throat from behind Sokka. "That might pose a bit of a problem," he said. "We have not been able to find him."

Aang blinked.

"What do you mean you can't _find_ him?" Zuko said.

"He has disappeared," Iroh said. "He left after the fall of Ba Sing Se and has not been seen since."

"Wait," Sokka said, "so who's in charge of the Earth Kingdom right now?"

"An advisory body made up of several members of the White Lotus society," Iroh said, "including your friend King Bumi."

"Well, great!" Toph said. "Put Bumi in charge. I like him."

Iroh shook his head. "Bumi wishes to return to Omashu. And I do not blame him. The people of Ba Sing Se want the royal family back. It's a matter of legitimacy."

Aang wrote "Find King Kuei" under "Earth," then added "and Bosco" after a moment's thought. "Okay, I can start looking. What else?"

Suki held up her hand. "I had a thought. The Kyoshi Warriors have spent the last few hundred years protecting Kyoshi Island, but now that we've been out in the world, we want to keep helping."

"That's great!" Aang said. "What do you want to do?"

"We want to work directly for you," Suki said. "I mean, for the Avatar. We'll keep the peace and help out, and we can definitely help look for the Earth King."

"Wow," Aang said. "That's great. Actually, there's something else I could really use your help with." He looked down at the "Earth" quadrant of his list. "There's another group that Avatar Kyoshi founded, and I think they need some re-training. The Dai Li."

"What?!" several people exclaimed at once. Katara found her voice first. "Avatar Kyoshi founded the Dai Li? They're terrible!"

"I know," Aang said. "She meant for them to protect the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. But they got corrupted by power." He looked up to see Suki biting her lip and looking mildly disturbed. "Not that I think that'll happen to the Kyoshi Warriors! I mean, not that it could happen! In fact, I think you could make it un-happen--"

"No, Aang, we need to remember our history," Suki said. "We can't let the Kyoshi Warriors turn into thugs with fans."

"We won't let that happen," Aang said.

"We'll have to make sure." Suki pursed her lips in thought, then said, "I think for now we'll stick to looking for the Earth King... and re-training the Dai Li, if you think they'll listen to us."

"I'll go with you," Toph said. "I think they'll listen to me."

"Great," Aang said, writing "Dai Li--Toph and the Kyoshi Warriors" on his list.

"Can we take a break, first?" Sokka asked. "To go find my space sword, and to go visit my family at the South Pole?"

"I'll ask the salvage crews if they've found it," Zuko said. "I'm planning on making a trip over to that part of the Earth Kingdom anyway."

Katara was staring at the list. After a pause, she looked up at Aang and said, "There's still one quadrant left."

"Yeah," Aang said. He took a deep breath, then said, "I think I have to look for the rest of the Air Nomads."

Everyone looked blank at that. Katara was the one who broke the silence. "Aang, all the rest--"

"I know, I know what you're going to say," Aang said. "But we're _nomads_. Maybe some people laid low. Maybe some are hiding somewhere in parts of the Earth Kingdom we never saw. And maybe... maybe there's a hidden Air Temple made up of refugees and survivors." He looked around at everyone's expressions, then sighed. "Okay, that last one isn't very likely, but still. The Fire Nation killed everyone at the Temples, but that wasn't everyone."

"Aang," Zuko said, "There's been a bounty on Air Nomads for the last hundred years. Dead, rather than alive."

"That's only in places the Fire Nation could reach," Aang snapped. "Look, I'm not going to argue. But I need to find more Airbenders. Or at least... I need to try."

"Well," Sokka said, "Now that the War's over, anyone in hiding might feel safe to come out."

"Exactly," Aang said. He looked up at Katara, who was still staring at the list. "Um... Katara? Do you want to come with me?"

Katara ducked her head. "I'm sorry, I can't. At least, not at first. I need to go home and help. See my family. Learn more about healing."

Aang tried to not feel utterly crushed and disappointed. "Right... of course! I mean, I didn't really expect you to come right away. I mean..."

"So," Zuko said loudly. "It looks like we're all splitting up for a while."

That jolted the mood. Aang looked down at his list, then up at his friends. "Yeah," he said. "I guess... this is goodbye, for now..."

"Okay, look," Sokka said. "I love tearful goodbyes as much as any of you, but the first New Moon festival in a hundred years is going to be at the North Pole in three months, and you're all going to be there. Right?"

"Right," Aang agreed, relieved.

"Of course," Zuko said, "if they don't shoot down my ship."

"Is there any real dirt there?" Toph said, then, "Ow! Of course I'll come!"

"Wonderful," Katara said, pulling her hand back from Toph's head. "This is just goodbye for a little while."

"And of course," Iroh said, startling Aang, who had almost forgotten he was still listening, "You're all always welcome in my tea shop. So don't stay away too long!"

Aang watched Katara and silently promised he wouldn't.


	7. Tutelage of a Young Fire Lord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lieutenant Jee survived his last cruise with Prince (now Fire Lord) Zuko in once piece. He's not sure he's going to get out of this one so lucky.

Lieutenant Jee had considered himself lucky to get away from Admiral Zhao mostly unscathed. He and the rest of the crew had been shipped to the ass-end of nowhere to guard a dishwater-dull supply line, but they were in one piece, instead of taken apart by weird spirit creatures at the North Pole, or sunk by Waterbenders, or any of the other things they heard about in rumors and whispers.

Oh, it was a lousy job, all right--they were guarding ships hauling mining tailings around, so everything stunk and Jee thought he'd never get the smoke out of his clothes. But he was alive. And getting news months later than everyone else in the Fire Nation was better than not getting it at all.

At least, that's what Jee told himself when Fong burst into the one crummy bar in the mining town and announced, "Did you hear? The Avatar took down the Fire Lord!"

Jee stared at him for a full three breaths before he felt himself laughing. "What? Don't be ridiculous."

"And that's not all," Fong said, staggering over to Jee's table and pouring himself a glass of Jee's already paid-for wine. Jee scowled, but it didn't seem to affect him. "Apparently Prince Zuko beat his crazy sister in an Agni Kai, and he's the new Fire Lord! And he and the Avatar have ended the war, and given Ba Sing Se and a thousand li of land back to the Earthbenders!"

Jee raised both his eyebrows and blinked. He must have hallucinated that last bit. There was never actually enough wine to make the job worthwhile, not on his pay, but he gave it a good shot every night they landed on shore, and he'd been making some pretty good headway on this jug. "That's ridiculous," he said again. "You remember Prince Zuko. He's arrogant, petty, disrespectful, and... and him making nice with the Avatar and the Earth Kingdom? I'd believe flying tortoise-hogs first!"

"Lieutenant Jee?"

There was someone in official Fire Nation regalia standing in the doorway with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. Someone Jee didn't recognize. He squinted for a moment trying to make out the face, then said, reluctantly, "Over here."

The messenger came and stood next to his table. "I have letters for you, sir."

That wasn't necessarily good news. Jee held out his hand, then set the scrolls down on the table before breaking the seal on the first one.

 _By the hand of the Fire Lord and the seal of the Fire Nation and blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda end of the War with the Earth Kingdom and the complete cessation of all hostilities--_

"Uh," Jee said.

"Sir?" Fong asked.

Jee shook his head slowly. "Uh," he said again, and re-read those last couple of lines. They didn't change. Then he skipped to the end and read that a few times. "Well, I'll be a flying tortoise-hog."

"What is it, sir?"

"It's a proclamation from Fire Lord Zuko," he said. "War's over."

"Wow." Fong leaned back and sighed. "Wow. That's amazing!"

Jee remembered that Fong had a little sister in the Firebending corps at Ba Sing Se. He was probably just relieved he'd see her again. "Yeah, well," he said, his own feelings a good deal more mixed. "Fire Lord Zuko. I don't believe it."

"I wonder if he remembers us," Fong said. "You know, from the good old days hunting the Avatar."

"I doubt it," Jee said, popping the seal on the next message. "And if he does, he probably hopes all of us jump in a coal mine and seal it up after us."

 _Captain Jee,_

 _Though it has been several months since we last saw each other and we didn't get to part on the best of terms, I hope you and your crew will accept my invitation--and it is an invitation, not an order--to take charge of a small vessel I'll need to travel between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom on a regular basis. Assuming you agree I've sent along some funds for your travel and also your orders of promotion._

 _Whatever your decision, I wish you a safe journey back to the Fire Nation and a prosperous coming year._

 _Fire Lord Zuko._

Jee realized his jaw was hanging open only after he tried to swallow and felt his teeth click together.

"Sir?" Fong asked again.

"Flying tortoise-hogs," was all Jee could manage to say.

* * *

The number of rumors Jee heard thickened on his way to the capitol.

"I heard he and his sister had an Agni Kai and they burned down the whole capitol, and then the Avatar swooped down on a flying Bison and took her out!"

"No, I heard he tamed a Water Savage and she took out Princess Azula with the palace water supply!"

"I heard the Avatar killed Fire Lord Ozai and destroyed the airship fleet with a flood!"

"That's ridiculous," Jee complained. It felt like that was the only thing he was saying these days. "How do you destroy an airship with a flood?"

The lieutenant he was questioning stared at him for a few seconds. "It was the _Avatar,_ " she finally responded.

Jee slapped his hand over his eyes and pondered getting another drink.

"I hear the new Fire Lord's a submissive," the bartender in the next port said. "And that's why he rolled over for the Earth Kingdom and the Avatar. He's a pervert."

Fire whiskey, Jee meditated, should not be shot through one's nose. It may not actually be on fire, but it certainly _felt_ like it in his sinuses. "What. The. No. No. I've _met_ Prin--Fire Lord Zuko. That's... no!"

But _that_ particular rumor was one he heard five or six more times, so by the time he reached the capitol, he started to wonder if he'd hallucinated the three years cruising around the world, getting yelled at by Prince Zuko and searching the skies for a missing Avatar. He had either hallucinated that, or he was hallucinating this. That was the only way this week made any sense.

By the time he got to the palace, he'd heard enough variations of the Agni-Kai/Avatar/submissive story that he was starting to believe _something_ of the sort had happened. The palace servants took his (shiny, new) cape and led him inside. "The Fire Lord is practicing in the north courtyard," one of them told him. "He asked that you be brought there as soon as you arrived."

"Uh, thanks," Jee replied. Practicing? Practicing what?

Firebending, it turned out. Zuko was dressed in a light robe with his hair tied back, moving gracefully through an unfamiliar Firebending form. Moving beside him in harmony was a white-haired man in a simple brown robe, who Jee didn't recognize. Until he straightened up at the end to exchange bows with Zuko, and then Jee was stunned short of breath. _Admiral Jeong Jeong? But..._

"Captain!"

Zuko was _waving_ at him. And _smiling_. Jee's world typically made more sense than this after a three-day bender.

"Um... My Lord," he said, and made to kneel. Zuko made an annoyed noise and strode over, managed to catch him with a hand on his shoulder before he'd gotten far.

"Please," Zuko--Fire Lord Zuko said as a couple of servants hovered next to him awkwardly holding his crown and his cape. "Don't be so stiff."

"I'm just trying to show respect, my Lord," Jee said, taken aback.

Zuko raised his good eyebrow at him, and Jee snapped his mouth shut. "Respect," Zuko finally said. "You're never going to stop trying to teach that to me, are you?"

"Sir, I didn't mean--" he started, then stopped, horrified at himself.

Zuko just smiled, tilted his head at him, and said, "Yeah, 'sir' is okay. I can live with that. So, you're taking the job? Please say you are."

Jee hadn't even considered saying 'no'--when the Fire Lord says jump, in the Navy, you ask if he means straight up or overboard. But it sounded like Zuko actually expected him to have a meaningful opinion on the subject. "I--yes, sir," he finally said.

"Wonderful!" Zuko finally let his servants throw his cape over his shoulders. He took his crown in his right hand and gestured into the palace. "Come on, let me show you the map."

Zuko wasn't acting like a Fire Lord--well, not that Jee had ever met Fire Lord Ozai, or Fire Lord Azulon before him, but he'd heard plenty of stories. But he also wasn't acting like the petulant screaming monster who had made Jee's life hell for three years, so he was willing to accept this as a step up.

Zuko led him into a bookshelf-lined room with a large map table in the center. The map had tiny figurines of Firebenders and Earthbenders on it, little ships and tanks and one pai sho white lotus tile on top of Ba Sing Se.

Jee scanned the layout of the tiny red and green figures. He hadn't seen a full, general's-eye view of the war in a while, but he was pretty sure they'd had a lot more territory than this the last time he'd checked. Which meant they really were drawing down.

"So there's a salvage effort going on in the Wulong Forest that I want to check in on," Zuko said, pointing. "And then I want to meet with the governors of the colonies. I've sent messengers, and we'll meet at Jining in a month to see how the transfer of power is going."

"Uh... right," Jee said. "Of course, sir."

"Excellent! Why don't you relax for a few minutes, and then we'll go down and see the ship?"

There was that thing again, where it sounded like his opinion was actually being requested. It was beyond strange. "Looking forward to it, sir."

* * *

Prince Zuko and Fire Lord Zuko did not match up in Jee's head at _all._

Prince Zuko had been a petulant, shrieking boy, who had no regard for his crew's well-being or safety and demanded their obedience rather than earned their respect. Fire Lord Zuko was... _nice_.

It was almost a relief when he got frustrated and yelled at someone. Of course, _now_ he got embarrassed when he caught himself, recanted, and hid in his quarters to grumble at himself.

"Okay, sir," Fong said a day into the trip. "He's a submissive, all right."

Jee raised an eyebrow and looked around swiftly to see if the Fire Lord was anywhere near them. It was dusk sliding into evening, the purple shadows of the crew cris-crossing the deck. Jee couldn't see the Fire Lord or his bodyguards anywhere, but he slid slightly closer to the prow of the ship anyway. "What do you mean?"

Fong snorted. "He asked about my wrist ties." He held up his left gauntlet demonstratively. "I mean, he was about to ask how to tie them properly, and then he clammed up and ran off for Firebending practice."

Jee winced. There were a variety of theories of how to deal with having submissives on your ship. Some commanders swore that they destroyed morale. Others thought having a few submissives on board kept the dominants from getting too out of hand. Jee's crew selection had originally been limited to "people who owed General Iroh a favor," so he hadn't really checked the balance that carefully. Fong was one of several submissives who had been aboard Zuko's ship, not that the Prince had noticed any of the crew's Aspects.

... Zuko had been asking how to tie his--right. Even if Zuko _had_ noticed, he'd never have learned how to properly signal that he was a submissive. Why would anyone think he'd need to know?

"Well," he said. "Well."

One didn't _want_ to think of the Fire Lord as a submissive. One certainly didn't want to think about taking the angry, bratty prince who had spent three years yelling at one and turning him over a desk. One didn't want to think about teaching Zuko a serious lesson about respect and discipline and fucking and oh, no. No. Nonononononono.

And it didn't hurt that the Fire Lord was--excepting the scar--particularly good-looking. And something seemed to have changed about Zuko's face, too; either the scar had... settled, somehow, or Jee had gotten used to it, but it didn't look nearly as bad as he'd remembered. Or maybe it was just that the rest of Zuko's face wasn't scowling all the time.

... Didn't _help_ , not hurt. It didn't _help_ that the Fire Lord looked good enough to fuck.

"Captain!" Zuko said behind him.

Jee started and nearly fell over the railing as he turned around. "Yes, my Lord!"

Zuko made and aggrieved noise but didn't correct him this time. "How long until we reach port?"

"Tide will be letting us into port in two hours' time," Jee said.

Zuko nodded. Then he looked at Fong. Then he very swiftly looked out at the ocean and if he'd been anyone else, Jee would have said he was blushing. "Good. Carry on."

Fong leaned over and cleared his throat. "You should talk with him, sir."

"What?!" Jee snapped. "You're a submissive, you talk to him!"

Fong laughed and wiggled his eyebrows. "I don't think he wants to talk to another submissive, sir."

"Oh, for--" Jee clapped a hand over his eyes. "I'm old enough to be his father." Jee thought briefly about what Zuko's father had been like, and amended that swiftly to, "Or his uncle. He's not interested."

"I'm not sure about that, sir," Fong said.

"Well, I _am_ sure that if I ask to dominate the _Fire Lord_ I'm going to get my head handed to me," Jee growled.

"Of course, sir," Fong said. He waited a good few seconds before he added, "I _knew_ you were interested."

"Shut up," Jee said, and walked off, leaving Fong snickering.

* * *

When the Fire Lord didn't appear for another hour, Jee went around to his cabin. Surprisingly enough, Zuko's bodyguards were absent from the hallway. Jee looked up and down the hall, nerved himself, then knocked.

"What?!"

Well, that hadn't changed. "It's, um, Captain Jee, sir. I was just checking--"

Zuko wrenched the door open and stared at him.

Jee stared back. Zuko was mostly out of his armor, his left gauntlet still tied on over his robe. His hair was out of its topknot and brushing his shoulders, bangs hanging down over his eyes. It was sweet, in a subby way--assuming, of course, that the rumors and Fong were right about Zuko being in a subby way.

Zuko blinked at Jee a few times, then cleared his throat and said, "Come in."

Jee wasn't sure if Zuko realized that being Fire Lord made that an order, but he complied anyway. Zuko's room was actually pretty bare. A flag, a small altar, a futon, and a closet. There was a chair by the altar and Zuko sat down on it, sighing.

"Is there something I can do for you, sir?" Jee asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

Zuko looked up and blinked at him, looking incredibly innocent for a brat prince-turned-Fire Lord. "Advice?" he finally asked.

"Sir, I--" Jee coughed. "I don't know if you want my advice. My last good idea got me busted two ranks and... um." And eventually signed up on Zuko's last voyage, not that he wanted to explain the chain of events leading to _that_.

Zuko had raised his good eyebrow. "Busted two ranks by whom?"

"Um. Captain Zhao."

Zuko snorted. "Zhao. He was a good soldier. Just like my father wanted."

To Jee, that didn't sound like much of a commendation.

"The Fire Nation is full of good soldiers," Zuko was saying. "And I've just ended a war. I'm still responsible for them. I don't want to fail my country just because I want to help the Avatar."

"... Oh," Jee said.

Zuko shook his head. "I've spent enough of my life screwing things up. I want to get this right." He looked down at his gauntlet, and snorted. "I can't even get _this_ right!"

Jee frowned and held out his hand without even thinking about it.

Zuko stared at his outstretched hand for a moment, then gave a sort of half-laugh and put his wrist in Jee's hand.

Which left Jee holding the Fire Lord's wrist. Oh. Well.

"Well, um, sir," he stuttered, "I mean, you already know how to tie a dominant's gauntlet..."

"But I'm not a dominant," Zuko said softly.

That cleared that up.

"Okay, well..." Jee pulled at the laces, then tugged them into the coin knot that formed the centerpiece of a submissive signal. "It's just... around like this... and you can make a loop, here," he finished off the knot, cinching off a loop just big enough for two fingers. "So that someone can... er."

His fingers were still through the loop, he noticed. Which meant he was standing in the Fire Lord's room on the Fire Lord's ship propositioning the Fire Lord, who was thirty years his junior and would probably react by Firebending him through the wall.

"Oh," Zuko said.

Jee still wasn't moving his fingers. His hand seemed incapable of reacting to the most basic of survival instincts.

Zuko was staring up at him with an intense, nervous expression. He pulled his wrist back and Jee's fingers tightened involuntarily. Zuko's eye went even wider.

"I--sir," Jee pleaded.

"Oh," Zuko said again. "You... want..."

Jee had a few opinions about partnering with male submissives. Not usually his thing. Had done it a few times, wasn't really seeking it out. Sure. And this was _Prince Zuko_. Fire Lord Zuko. All around bad idea. Don't fuck your superior officer, don't fuck hoity-toity brat princes who ponced around as though the low-class crew could lick their boots, don't fuck people who could legally have you executed. Jee's brain had _many_ opinions about this situation.

Jee's fingers weren't listening to his brain. They curled sharply around the cord on Zuko's wrist and tugged.

There was sort of a blur of movement, and then Jee's mouth was covered by Zuko's--hot, hungry, _terrible_ kisser, needed to fix that--and in another moment he was overbalanced and toppling onto Zuko's futon with a whoof. Zuko came with him. The crush was pleasant but Zuko's elbows were pointy.

Jee pushed and rolled, until he was on top and straddling Zuko's hips. The prince blinked up at him, expression nervous but his mouth set in _want._

... Fire Lord. Not prince. Jee took a deep breath and tried to remember that.

"What's your safeword?" Jee said.

Zuko's good eye went wide. Jee winced. _No. Shit. Too forward--_

"I, uh--" Zuko closed his mouth and looked away. "I didn't have my own. I mean..."

Oh. Not reluctance, then. "That's okay, sir."

That got Zuko to smirk. "I don't think you should be calling me that right now."

"... Right."

Zuko took a deep breath, then nodded. "Okay. I mean--jasmine. My safeword is jasmine."

Jee licked his lips. "All right," he said, stalling. He hadn't brought any equipment with him--he had his belt, and presumably Zuko had--presumably the Fire Lord would have whatever toys he wanted, but Jee wasn't sure how to broach the subject. He sat back on his heels and looked Zuko up and down instead. "Take your robe off."

Zuko scrambled to shed his clothing, nothing graceful or seductive about it, just earnest willingness to please. He had to tug to get the robe out from under the gauntlet. Jee took the time to admire the line of Zuko's back, the definition of muscle under skin. Zuko's abdominal muscles were unreal. A teenager's metabolism and a psychotic devotion to being able to fight the Avatar would keep a body that lean, but not much else would.

Jee reached out, then hesitated as Zuko dropped his robe on the floor and looked up at him. Jee was frozen between wanting to run his fingers along the creases of Zuko's pectorals and terror at... at... what the hell was he even _doing_ here?

"Uh, s--Zuko," Jee said, "Is there anything that--that you want?"

Zuko looked up through the fringe of his bangs. "I don't know. I mean, I've never. Um."

"Nothing you've thought about?" Zuko shook his head and Jee frowned. "Nothing you've read?"

Zuko blanched. "Oh, well, I tried buying one of those, y'know, scrolls. In a shop. The woman-on-top ones?"

After a few moments of silence, Jee had to clear his throat. "What happened?"

"It was about my sister," Zuko said. "... It caught fire."

"Oh." That sort of killed the mood. "Well, I really hope I don't remind you of your sister."

Zuko's right eye went wide. "No. No no no. You don't."

"Good." Jee levered himself up so he was standing and unbuckled his belt. He ran the leather through his hands, then looked up and caught Zuko's gaze. "Take your loincloth off and get on your knees."

Zuko licked his lips and untied the knot.

Jee let his gaze linger over Zuko's lower abs, those tight lines of muscle above his groin, the swelling of his cock against his thigh. As Zuko shifted himself to hands and knees, he looked back over his shoulder in a way he probably wasn't intending to be coquettish. Jee swallowed hard and felt his belt twist in his hands.

"Okay," he said when he got his breath back. "Have you been punished before?"

"No," Zuko said, then raised his hand to his scarred eye. "Not unless you count--"

"Not that kind of punishment," Jee said quickly.

Zuko put his hand back on the futon, fingers curling in his sheet. "No. I mean... no."

"Do you know why I'm going to punish you?"

Zuko's breath hitched, and his head bowed. "Because. Um. I was disrespectful. For three years, I mean, and I disrespected my uncle, and I failed to capture the Avatar, even if that was a good thing--"

"I think that's enough for now," Jee said, alarmed. He folded his belt over and slapped it against his hand, and Zuko's back muscles twitched. "I'm going to hit you, and you're going to count. And I'll stop when I think you've had enough. Clear?"

"Yes, sir," Zuko said softly.

He was going to snap his belt in half if this kept up. "All right, then."

The well-muscled curve of Zuko's ass was smooth and white. Jee admired it for a moment before bringing his belt down with a sharp crack.

Zuko made a small noise of startlement, but otherwise didn't flinch. "One," he said breathily a second later.

Jee could feel his breath hissing into his lungs, the tingling certainty that he felt with a responsive submissive under his control. He flicked his belt down again, and Zuko exhaled sharply. "Two!" He sucked in a breath, then said, "You can hit me harder."

"Harder?" Jee confirmed.

"Please?"

 _Oh, well, if you ask nicely._ Jee took a deep breath and put his shoulder into the next swing.

Zuko cried out, high and sharp, and his elbows buckled. Jee held back for a moment, worried, but Zuko straightened his arms and said, "Three!"

All right, then. Jee shook his arm out, and brought the belt down again.

The belt left thick red stripes that Jee longed to run his palm across. He settled for cris-crossing strokes all up and down Zuko's thighs, up to just below his tailbone, and back down again. Zuko was panting, eyes half-lidded, moaning into every count. It felt good. It felt _satisfying._ Twenty-five strokes in and Jee's whole body was humming with the pleasure of a job well done.

Problem was, Zuko didn't appear to be done. He was still fighting against the pain, fingers clenching and breathing labored. He wasn't doing any of the things that indicated a submissive was good and punished, and it looked like it was going to take a while before his resistance broke down.

Jee frowned and fondled his belt for a moment. Who was he kidding? Zuko was made of little more than resistance and spite. Jee could beat him until his arm fell off and Zuko's ass was raw, but it wouldn't accomplish anything. He needed a shortcut.

Fortunately, Jee had dealt with stubborn submissives before. He leaned over and touched Zuko's chin, tilted his face up. "I want you to stop counting," he said.

Zuko blinked at him. "S... stop?"

"Every time I hit you," Jee said, "I want you to tell me why you deserve it."

Zuko's good eye went wide and glassy. "Okay."

Jee nodded, then stood up and folded his belt over again.

On the first crack of leather against reddened flesh, Zuko gasped, then quickly stuttered, "I d-disrespected my uncle."

"And therefore?" Jee prompted.

Zuko craned his neck to look at him, startled, then ducked his head and said, "I deserve to be punished because I disrespected my uncle."

Jee slammed the belt down on his ass again and Zuko yelled out incoherently. "Well?" Jee barked.

"I deserve to be punished because I disrespected my crew!"

That was always nice to hear. Jee grinned and snapped with his wrist so that he caught some of the nastiest welts with the very tip of the belt. "Augh!" Zuko yelled. "Augh, I... I..."

"Come on," Jee said.

"I d... I deserve it..." Zuko's breath hitched, and Jee could hear the telltale stuffiness of tears. "I deserve it..."

Jee tapped Zee's ass with the belt again. "And why?"

"D... deserve it because... because I failed my father..."

He didn't even think before he was giving Zuko the hardest stroke he could with the whole of the belt. Zuko fell to his elbows and cried, "I deserve to be punished because I didn't stand up to my father--please--please--"

It was instinct at that point, to drop the belt and gently roll Zuko on his side, and damn it why was he still wearing his armor? He had to settle for rubbing Zuko's shoulder and arm while tugging at the laces to his shoulder guards and breastplate. And then finally, _finally_ he was down to his undershirt and he could cradle his sub against his chest properly, until Zuko's sobs quieted and his breathing steadied.

"Shh," Jee said when Zuko had started to calm down. "That was good."

"Good?" Zuko asked in a tiny voice.

"Very good," Jee said.

He shifted his weight a bit to resettle Zuko over his hip, then reached up to stroke the kid's hair. It seemed to help. Zuko nuzzled into his shirt and mumbled, "I want to be good..."

"I want to fuck you," Jee said without thinking.

Shit. Well, there went that possibility.

Zuko didn't say anything, though. He tilted his head back with a kind of surprised look on his face, then leaned into Jee and slid his legs apart.

Jee was pretty sure that coming in his pants at this point would be treason.

"Okay, here, get on your back," he said. As soon as he was free of Zuko's weight he clawed at his clothing, throwing off layers of armor and cloth until he was kneeling naked between Zuko's legs, hardly daring to let himself breathe.

Except, of course... "Do you have any lube?"

Zuko blinked up at him mutely.

Oh, _great._ Jee's quarters were a level down, and there was no way he was getting dressed again, heading down the ladder, finding his supplies, and coming back up past anyone in the corridor who happened to be looking. For a moment he thought desperately of yelling for a guard to fetch some, but he put that thought away with the rest of his suicidal intentions and concentrated on coming up with a plan B.

Well, he had spit, and while it wasn't the most dignified solution it had worked for him before. He got his fingers good and wet and slid first one, then two inside while Zuko pressed his heels into the mattress and took short, quiet breaths. And as Jee pressed inside him--oh fuck, it had been too long, it had been _far_ too long since he'd gotten to do this, and Zuko felt tight and hot and amazing. He pushed forward again, gasping at the sensation.

When he pulled back, Zuko hissed. It was a tiny noise but it froze Jee's balls like he'd gotten tickled with a Water Tribe ice dildo. "You okay?"

Zuko bit his lip, nodded sharply, then winced and shook his head. "I just can't--"

"Hold still." Jee wasn't in any shape to keep fucking after that shock, anyway. He pulled out and lay down next to Zuko, who was starting to get back some of the tightness in his muscles. Jee sighed, then pulled Zuko on top of him.

"Too much?" he asked.

Zuko's shoulders relaxed a bit, and he nuzzled into Jee's chest. "Yeah. it just... it felt like I couldn't, all of a sudden." He picked his head up and met Jee's gaze. "I can do it now."

Oh, youth. "That's okay," Jee said. "... Was this your first time?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay. That's normal." Jee had a fleeting wish that he'd just gone and gotten the fucking lube, but he put it out of his head and instead reached down to wrap his hand around Zuko's cock. "C'mon. Here."

Zuko got hard again almost instantly--oh, youth--and without much effort on Jee's part the kid soon was limp and shuddering in release. Jee examined his sticky hand with as much fondness as irritation and decided not to press his luck by wiping it off on Zuko's sheets.

"I didn't safeword," Zuko said just as Jee started trying to figure out how to extricate himself.

"Huh?"

"You know. When you stopped."

Jee blinked. "Did you want me to keep going?"

"No, but I thought..."

"Some dominants play that way," Jee said. "I don't like to."

Zuko's silence was eloquent. Jee sighed and stroked his hair, and wished he'd been able to get in earlier on Zuko's sexual education.

Then he remembered what Prince Zuko had been like, ages thirteen through sixteen, and decided to just be thankful he'd survived that period intact.

"Thank you," Zuko mumbled into his chest.

Thank you for spanking and fucking the leader of the Fire Nation. Sure. "You're welcome," he said.

"What time did you say we were making port, again?"

Fuuuuuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. "I need to go," Jee said. "I need to--" So many fucking things, including washing off and getting on all the nice bits of his uniform.

Zuko rolled over and sat up, wincing. Then he made an unhappy noise. "It hurts to _sit down_."

Well, that was the idea. "Blame your damnably high pain tolerance," Jee said. He crawled out of bed and started reassembling his clothing. Pants. He needed pants.

"I didn't realize that really happened," Zuko said, rubbing the side of one thigh. "Mai never said anything."

"You'll be fine, sir," Jee said as he grabbed his undershirt. Armor? Yes, at least enough to get him to his bunk. He couldn't just _carry_ it.

"Maybe I'll just not sit down," Zuko said. He looked down and seemed to notice the sticky smear on his stomach for the first time. "I... need to wash."

"Good idea, sir," Jee said. "We're docking in... half an hour, now. You have time."

"Okay. Good." Zuko stood up, dragging his robe off the floor with him. He tied his sash as Jee decided to just shove his shoulder guards and gauntlets under his arm. Zuko tipped his head to look at him, then stepped closer and pressed his mouth against Jee's, suddenly and quickly enough to be almost chaste. "Thank you, again. I'll see you on deck."

"Thank you, sir," Jee said out of reflex. Zuko had the good grace to only laugh silently at him as he left.

* * *

Admiral Kinzo was in charge of the efforts to recover survivors and equipment from the catastrophe at Wulong Forest, where the previous Fire Lord's airship fleet had met with unfortunate Avatar-related difficulty. In the month since the comet, the admiral had set up an administration post for logging the dead and injured, a hospital, and a workyard to tear down broken airships and rebuild the remaining ones.

They toured the hospital last. The Fire Lord insisted on visiting every ward, then on stopping to talk with every soldier who was awake. At first Admiral Kinzo seemed impressed with his diligence, but by the end he was looking decidedly uncomfortable.

Probably not as uncomfortable as Jee was feeling, though. He could only imagine what Zuko was saying to all of them. Probably some variant on 'I'm sorry.'

"As you can see, my Lord," Admiral Kinzo said as they left, "this kind of brutality deserves a swift--"

"The Water Tribes have healers," Zuko cut him off. "I'll send a message and ask if they have any to spare."

Admiral Kinzo's jaw clicked closed. "My Lord," he said. "Do you mean to say that we are not going to fight back?"

"I recall giving an order to end the war, Admiral," Zuko said evenly. "I'm going to assume there was no miscommunication."

"But my Lord!" Kinzo waved back at the hospital building. "They killed--they injured--"

"My father was taking those soldiers on a mission to burn the major farmland of the Earth Kingdom to the ground," Zuko said firmly. "They were going to kill thousands of people, and start a famine that would kill thousands more."

"You would speak that way against our own troops?" Kinzo spluttered.

Zuko stopped walking and glared at him.

"... My Lord," Kinzo tacked on belatedly, in a much quieter voice.

"Our people will be better served by peace," Zuko said.

Kinzo looked like he was going to respond, but he was interrupted by someone yelling across the yard, "HEY! ZUKO!"

The Fire Lord turned, startled, then grinned and waved. "Sokka! Suki! Toph!"

Kinzo looked like he wanted to swallow his own sideburns as three people--presumably Sokka, Suki, and Toph--ran across the open workyard towards them. Jee recognized the tallest one as one of the Water Tribe kids who had flown off with the Avatar, but the short girl in Earth Kingdom clothes and the woman in... in... some kind of fierce face paint and battle dress were new to him.

The Water Tribe boy swept Zuko up into a hug that nearly lifted him off the ground. "Zuko! Good to see you! Guess what?"

"Hey, Sokka, what?"

Sokka put the Fire Lord down, stepped back, and drew his sword from his scabbard. "I found my space sword!"

Jee looked over at Kinzo. The admiral looked like he was about to faint.

"A-hem," the Earth Kingdom girl said. " _Who_ found your space sword?"

"Sorry. _Toph_ found my space sword." Sokka grinned, then winced as the girl punched him in the arm. "Owwww."

Jee realized with a start that the girl's eyes were completely clouded over. Not that it seemed to be slowing her down any.

"Sorry, I should introduce you guys," Zuko was saying. Sokka sheathed his sword again, which reduced the queasiness on Admiral Kinzo's face by a fraction. "This is Captain Jee of my personal ship, and Admiral Kinzo, who's in charge of the recovery."

"Yeah, the admiral and us have... met," Sokka said.

Zuko's eyebrow raised infinitesimally. "Well, then." He turned to look at Jee and Admiral Kinzo. "These are my _friends_. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors, and Toph Bei Fong."

Admiral Kinzo nodded as decorously as his dyspepsia would allow. Jee couldn't help smirking at Kinzo's discomfort as he gave a small bow. "A pleasure."

"Nice to meetcha," Sokka said.

"So how long are you guys going to be here?" Zuko asked.

"Well, now that we've found Sokka's sword," the fiercely-painted warrior--Suki--said, "we really need to be moving on. We're on our way to Ba Sing Se."

"Well, stay for dinner, at least," the Fire Lord said, turning to Admiral Kinzo. "I believe we can set something up?"

"We have planned a banquet in your honor," Kinzo said in a strained monotone.

"Good. Have a few more places set." Zuko smiled at everyone, then looked between Sokka and Suki and got a funny look on his face. "Um... Captain? Can I have a minute?"

Jee blinked. Then he started desperately thinking of places they'd just walked through that would offer a bit of privacy. "Uhh... of course, sir." Fuck fuck fuck. There was... probably something back in the hospital. "This way?"

Zuko's personal guards were discreet, and also useful. "In here," the younger of the two said. She showed them into a hallway and pushed open a door into a small, empty sickroom. "I hope this will suffice, my Lord?"

"Thank you, Keiko," Zuko said, before shutting the door and sealing himself and Jee inside.

Jee waited a minute for Zuko to say something. When Zuko had been standing, staring at the door handle for long enough that the silence had gone through awkward and straight into ludicrous, he cleared his throat. "Sir?"

"What? I'm fine," Zuko said. "No, everything--it's good, okay? Everything's fine!"

Jee raised an eyebrow. "Sir, I don't think you're fine."

Zuko looked _startled_ at his contradiction. "There's nothing wrong with me!"

"Of course not, sir."

"I can handle myself just fine!"

"Of course you can, sir."

"Just because my Aspect isn't what everyone thought it was, that doesn't mean I can't be Fire Lord. I mean, Suki's a submissive, and _she's_ in charge of the Kyoshi Warriors and Aang's trusted her to take over the Dai Li and I am obviously just as good at this as she is!"

Jee took a second to process that and finally just said, "Exactly, sir."

Zuko turned to stare at him. "Are you humoring me?"

"Well, sir, you were freaking out."

"I am not freaking out!"

"Of course not, sir."

Zuko stared at him, mouth agape. Jee just raised his eyebrows and waited.

Finally Zuko buried his face in his hands and said, "I'm freaking out."

Jee stepped closer, then gently took Zuko's elbow and pulled him into a... semi-embrace, hampered by the fact that full armor made giving hugs pointy and awkward. "I'm sorry, sir."

"No, no! I mean, that was... good. I wanted... I really wanted that to happen." Zuko was taking deep breaths, the kind you learned your first day of Firebending class so you could avoid burning down the school. "I've just never. Done that before."

"Oh." So the Fire Lord's first time submitting to anyone had happened an hour ago. With him. And now he was panicking. "Sir--" wait, that wasn't going to help at all. "Zuko, listen to me. You're going to be fine."

Some of Zuko's anxiety vanished on the next breath. He took another, then looked up at Jee with a concerned expression. "That probably shouldn't work as well as it does."

"Well, it's well-known that submissives--"

"Yeah, but the _Fire Lord_ shouldn't be able to get ordered around." He shook his head sharply. "Not in front of people like Kinzo."

"Sir," Jee said, shocked. "I'd never... I would never try something that stupid."

Zuko actually looked _startled_ at that. "Really?"

Jee thought about what evidence Zuko had to go on for that assertion, and winced. "Okay, I _have_ done things at least that stupid before... but that was my own ass on the line. Not yours."

Zuko's eyebrow quirked upwards. "And you have a vested interest in my ass now, is that it?"

Jee swallowed, then decided 'fuck it' and tilted his head over to run his gaze down Zuko's backside. Obscured by armor, but it was the thought that counted. "Well, I hope so."

Zuko made a strangled, startled noise that was most of the way to a laugh.

"Better?" Jee asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Zuko straightened himself up and brushed off the front of his armor. "Okay. Try this again?"

* * *

Jee had never actually seen a real teppanyaki chef at work before. He'd never even seen a restaurant so swank that they could hire a Firebender just to cook, much less had the back pay to afford a table. Between the Admiral and the Fire Lord's companies, the banquet had _three_ master chefs, and Jee was just trying not to stare like a bumpkin.

"Okay," Sokka said from the Fire Lord's other side. "This is a use of Firebending I can unreservedly get behind."

Fortunately, Zuko's other guests had no such inhibitions. "It's a traditional Fire Nation culinary style," the Fire Lord explained as the chef flipped a piece of salmon-shrimp into the air, seared it with a touch of his knife, and sent it spinning toward the food taster's dish. "The technique's gotten a lot more rare since most of the Firebenders had to enlist in the army. There are only fifty master chefs alive today."

"How do you know these things?" Suki asked.

"Fire Lord training," Zuko replied. "No, seriously, I get quizzes."

Admiral Kinzo looked like he was going to faceplant onto the grill surface. Jee held back a smirk and picked up the jug he'd made sure to keep by his right hand. "More wine, Admiral?"

"Thank you, Captain," Kinzo said. With all due deference to his rank, Admiral Kinzo was squeezed between Jee and the Fire Lord, and was doing his best to pretend like neither Jee nor the trio of foreigners were at the table. He also appeared to be attempting to ignore the cords tied on Zuko's gauntlets. Possibly by drinking enough that he couldn't make the knots out.

"Well, everything sure smells delicious," Toph said sardonically at the other end of the table.

The food taster gave the go signal, and the chef laid down a pattern of controlled fire blasts on the table, then sliced up the salmon-shrimp and flipped pieces from hot zone to hot zone with precise flair. Little clouds of steam rolled over the table. Jee topped up the Admiral's glass again.

"How's your family doing?" the Fire Lord asked Sokka.

"They're good," Sokka said. "Lessee, Gran-gran and Pakku are ruling the new school with an iron fist, dad and Bato went around rounding up all the outlying villages, so we've got contact back with a bunch more families... Katara's been shaping up a bunch of buildings, and the place looks fantastic."

"That's... nice to hear," Zuko said.

"How about you? How's the Fire Nation?"

Zuko cleared his throat and darted a not-at-all surreptitious glance at Admiral Kinzo. "Oh, it's going well. We, uh, we've had some work starting the draw-down, but at least everyone's stopped attacking each other."

"Officially, anyway," Suki remarked.

"Heh, yeah," Zuko said.

Admiral Kinzo held out his glass again. Jee obligingly reached for the pitcher.

By the time the chef had finished the eighth course with an impressive display of knife-work and food-juggling, it seemed like most of the Fire Lord's nerves had been blunted by food and drink, and Kinzo's eyes had glazed over. Jee considered that a job well done. The Admiral's temporary housing had room enough for everyone, so Jee didn't even have to stagger back to the ship after making sure the Fire Lord got to his own quarters all right. This promotion deal was great.

He woke to someone shaking his shoulder.

Jee scrambled awake, arm flailing to drive off whoever it was, groping for his knife. The person grabbed his arm. "Woah, Captain, stop!"

"Keiko?" Jee said fuzzily.

Zuko's personal guard nodded and stepped back from his bed. She didn't have her faceplate on. She looked... worried.

"What's going on?"

Keiko looked back at the door, where presumably her partner was waiting. "The Fire Lord isn't in his quarters."

And so they checked _his_ bed. Jee screwed up his eyes. "Well, I haven't seen him, so--"

"We also can't find Admiral Kinzo."

Shit. Jee sat up and rubbed at his face. "Give me two minutes."

It wasn't that he thought Admiral Kinzo had somehow lured the Fire Lord out of his room in order to assassinate him. That was only the first worst-case scenario he envisioned. By the time he was dressed he'd thought of ten other ideas, at least two of them scarier than that.

Keiko was drumming her fingers against her belt when he got outside. "We have people searching the hospital," she said.

"I'll start looking outside," he offered.

Keiko's shoulders relaxed minutely. "Thanks. I'm coordinating from the Admiral's office. Send up a signal if you need anything."

The whole administrative compound was a loosely fenced area some two or three li square. Jee stepped out into the warm night, squinted up at the stars and the nearly-full moon, and headed for the fence.

Images were flashing through his head as he started pacing the perimeter. Admiral Kinzo had been drunk, but how drunk had he gotten? Maybe he'd just been leading Jee on, trying to get him to drop his guard. Maybe he was trying to use Zuko as some kind of hostage. Maybe--

"And then Katara waves her arms, and WHOOSH--" Jee heard from up ahead, just outside the fence, "The entire thing _tips over_ \--"

Or maybe the Fire Lord had done what any sixteen-year-old would do when reunited with his friends, and snuck out to drink and tell stories without telling anyone.

Jee was pretty sure he recognized Zuko's laugh, but he crept closer to the fence just to be sure. When he got there, he saw that part of the fence had been... _pushed_ open, as though by a giant pair of hands.

As he was still staring, he heard Zuko say, "I wish my family was more like yours."

Well, that cleared that up.

"Yeah, you... sort of got the short straw on that one," Suki said. "Except for your uncle. He seemed nice."

Jee gingerly stepped through the ragged edges of the fence, mindful of what looked like sharp bends in the bars. Shortly past the line of the barricade there was a ridgeline, and below that he could make out the flickering of a campfire.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do about my sister," Zuko said.

Jee frowned and stopped moving. He realized he didn't know what all had happened to the Fire Lord's sister. He had assumed she'd been killed in that Agni Kai he'd heard all the rumors about. Apparently not.

"I can't just execute her. She's my _sister._ "

"You didn't have any problems with your father getting killed," Toph said. "In fact, if I remember correctly, you were trying to push Twinkle-Toes into doing what needed doing, over his repeated whining."

 _..."Twinkle-toes?" Is she talking about--did she really just refer to the Avatar as "Twinkle-toes?"_

"That's different," Zuko said. "Besides, Azula hasn't done anything nearly as bad as my father."

"Not for lack of trying," Sokka pointed out.

Jee sighed. Well, the kids sounded all right. Zuko wasn't being stabbed to death by a vengeful subordinate, and he could go tell Keiko to stop panicking. He turned to head back through the fence.

"Hey, Captain Hotseat!" Toph yelled. "Didn't you ever learn not to eavesdrop?"

Well. Nothing for it, then.

He gingerly picked his way down the slope and around to where the kids had built their fire. The little blind girl waved enthusiastically at him when he stepped into view, while the two other teenagers stared curiously and Zuko--well, Zuko was staring, too, but even in the firelight Jee could make out his blush.

"Sir," he said, "I understand if you don't _like_ having personal guards, but they do get worried when you run off without telling them first."

"So they dumped _you_ out of bed?" Toph said, sniggering. "Or were they just hoping to find him there?"

Jee had never actually wanted to wring a twelve-year-old girl's neck before. It was a sensation he'd have to remember, for future reference.

Zuko made a strangled noise, and Sokka turned to stare, first at Zuko, then at Jee. "Wait... seriously?" the Water Tribe boy asked.

"Sir," Jee said, forcing himself not to bite his tongue. Dammit, Zuko couldn't bluff for shit, could he. "Given that you are all right, I'm going to try and deal with the other crisis at hand."

Toph laughed. "Someone's going to get his ass tanned later."

"Toph!" Suki and Sokka chorused. Zuko was still blushing, but straightened up and focused on what Jee was saying. Thankfully. "What other crisis?"

"Admiral Kinzo has gone missing," Jee said.

"Do you need help finding him?" Suki said.

Jee admired her gumption but shook his head. "No, the whole guard's out looking. We have it under control." Totally under control. He was just standing out here getting judged by the Fire Lord's outlander friends because he liked personal humiliation, not because everyone had jumped to the conclusion that the Admiral had grabbed the Fire Lord and a knife.

Zuko was looking guilty, now. "I should come back with you."

"You should stay where you're safe," Jee said. And then, far later than he intended, "sir."

"I think we're fine," Sokka said. "It's not like anybody can sneak up on Toph."

Jee narrowed his eyes. "So I noticed." He took a deep breath. "Enjoy your evening."

He trudged back toward the complex in a much darker mood than he'd left in. That had been stupid. He was sleep deprived and cranky and had actually given a shit what teenagers had thought for a moment.

 _Don't sleep with teenagers. How many times do I have to remind myself? Eventually you have to talk to them._

He made it back to the complex without seeing a sign of the Admiral anywhere. He poked his head into the office where Keiko was holding court and waved wearily. "It's all right, I found him."

"Where?" Keiko asked quickly. "And... which one?"

Right now Jee couldn't give an elephant-rat's ass about the Admiral. "Fire Lord Zuko. He's with his friends, they have a campfire just past the east fence."

Keiko slumped into her chair in relief. "Good." Then she scowled. "I can't believe..." Something in her sense of duty or loyalty made her stop talking a lot earlier than Jee would have.

"Yeah," Jee said. "Good luck finding the Admiral. I'm going back to bed."

Keiko glared at him as he left, but it was decidedly not his problem any more.

Jee stopped before entering his room, then sighed and turned down the hall toward the storerooms. No way he was going to fall back to sleep after that. The Admiral couldn't begrudge him a bottle of wine after all this, and right now Jee needed one more than the storeroom did.

He passed two sets of guards on lookout on the way. Nobody was in the kitchens. There weren't any lights in the storerooms, and the first one was full of rice and grains. He sighed and moved further back.

Something clinked in the back storeroom. Curious and suddenly wary, Jee raised his hand and conjured a flame to see by.

... Ah. Admiral Kinzo had found the booze.

The admiral looked up blearily from his seat on the floor. He was leaning back against a rack of wine jugs, and he'd pulled a bottle of more expensive stuff from the shelf. It was open, and from the sloshing sound it made when the admiral gestured at him, Jee guessed it wasn't close to full. "Captain," Kinzo croaked. "Come drink with me."

Fuck it, that sounded like a great idea to Jee. He sighed, crossed the storeroom, and sat down on the floor.

There was a lantern on the floor. It had gone out, probably when it had been tipped over. Making no judgments, Jee righted it and lit it again with his fingers. Then he took the offered bottle and drank.

"He's a sixteen-year-old submissive," Kinzo said tiredly.

Jee spit out the last mouthful of wine and then swallowed down the wrong pipe in his throat. The coughing fit that followed lasted for a good minute before he could really breathe again. Kinzo tried to be helpful and pat him on the back, but it was more annoying than anything. "Wha--what? Sir?"

"I just want the Nation to be... great, you understand?" Kinzo said. He was staring at the bottle like he was considering making a grab for it. "I don't mind the kid, I don't miss his father, I just... I don't want the Fire Nation to lose any face."

Jee coughed again, then sighed and took another drink.

"And y'know, it's a change, it's always a change, Ozai was a change," Kinzo said as Jee handed the bottle back. He stared mournfully into its neck before taking another swig. "You remember Azulon? Grind away, he said, grind the rock into powder, he liked things under _control._ "

"Yeah," Jee said. He'd started his service in the navy when Azulon was still Fire Lord. Blockade duty. Dull, but it got the job done.

"Ozai was..." Kinzo shook his head. "Fucking brilliant. Scary."

"You met him, sir?" Jee asked.

"Burned his kid's face off," Kinzo said, as though he hadn't heard.

Jee gave up and took the bottle back. "Yes, sir, yes he did."

"I just think... kid's a sixteen-year-old submissive," Kinzo said. "I just want to believe that he's doing this for the right reasons. That we're not just rolling over and showing our balls to the Earth Kingdom 'cause we've got a pervert on the throne."

The instinctive, protective flash of anger that surged in Jee's veins--that's _my_ submissive you're talking about!--faded as soon as it came. Sure, it would be satisfying to clock Kinzo over the head with the bottle, but that would spill the wine. He took another swallow instead and sighed. "You're worried."

"I'm worried!"

Jee was worried, too. Not that Zuko could stand up to the Earth Kingdom. Strangely enough, he'd been convinced by how the Fire Lord had talked about that plan. Jee was worried about men like Kinzo, or worse, men who were like Kinzo but decided that their doubts were more important than their loyalty.

"Admiral," Jee started, "You've been in the Navy a while, yeah?"

"I've been in the Navy my whole life," Kinzo said. "Never thought... never thought I'd be afraid for it."

Jee nudged him and handed over the bottle. "I was in the Army," he admitted. "Before I wound up shipside. Know what I heard them say about the Navy when we were sitting around outside Ba Sing Se?"

The invocation of the Army, like some vengeful booze-stealing spirit, made Kinzo sit up and pay attention. "What did the Army say about us?" he demanded in a growl.

"They said the Navy's got enough subs in its officer corps that half the time a captain needs his dom's permission to give an order."

Kinzo's eyes flew open and he struggled upright, as though he would be able to regain equilibrium and punch the entire Army in its face. "Who do they think they are?"

Jee grabbed him by the belt and dragged him back to the floor. "They're idiots, that's what."

"Idiots!"

"Assholes."

"Assholes!"

"Reactionary, hidebound twits!" Jee yelled, starting to get into it.

"Hidebound!" Kinzo agreed. He waved the bottle around and Jee grabbed it in self-preservation.

"Wouldn't know--" Jee said, then took a drink, since he had to think about this next bit. "Wouldn't know a good officer if one saved their life."

"Damn straight," Kinzo said.

Jee nudged him and handed the bottle back. "And if he's a good officer, what does it matter if he's a sub?"

"Yeah, 'sright," Kinzo said. He looked at the bottle, looked up at Jee, then frowned down at the bottle again. "But..."

"I mean, seriously, sir," Jee said, "You've been in the Navy your whole life, you're telling me you've never seen a sub giving orders?"

Kinzo stared at him blankly. "I've seen a sub giving orders," he said as though correcting a well-meaning but confused subordinate. "How long have you been in the Navy, again?"

Jee thought about making another go at the bottle. "Five years, sir."

"And you never seen a sub give orders? Let me tell you," Kinzo said, twisting and reaching out until he could put his hand on Jee's shoulder. He missed and slapped Jee in the chest, but it was the thought that counted. "A man's as good as his officership, and that's a fact, whatever he likes to get fucked. This ain't the Army."

"That's what I thought, sir," Jee said. He licked his lips, and tried, "And you know the Fire Lord's got the Navy's back."

"Of course he does," Kinzo said. "And anyone wants to give him shit for being a sub, he's got the Navy to talk to, that's what."

"Of course, sir," Jee said warmly, patting Kinzo's hand on his chest. "Of course. Shall we get you back to your quarters so you can sleep?"

He managed to lever Kinzo to his feet, and they got as far as the kitchen before they'd made so much noise that the guards found them. "Get Admiral Kinzo to his quarters," Jee ordered, and confiscated the last couple swallows of wine left in the bottle.

When he got back to his own room, it took him until he was three steps in and shirtless before he realized Zuko was in his bed.

"Holy shit!" he said, a little louder than he meant. Then, "... Sir."

Zuko looked as though he was unsure if he was allowed to laugh. "Uh, I... sorry?"

Jee pinched the bridge of his nose. "What are you doing here? Sir?"

Zuko looked down at his hands. He was still wearing all of his clothes, which was kind of a relief, and he was sitting on top of Jee's blanket, legs crossed in a meditation posture. "I... wanted to apologize. For earlier. For my friends."

"Oh for crying..." Zuko's face crumbled as soon as he said it, so Jee sighed and held up his hands. "I mean, thanks. But I'm too tired to care about their opinions right now."

"Oh." Zuko looked startled at the very concept of being too tired to care about something. "Well... did you want to try fucking? Again?"

Why had he tried to talk Kinzo down, again? Putting a sixteen-year-old submissive in charge of your country was a _terrible_ idea. "Sir... I'd rather sleep," he said. "It's been a rough evening. I had to find you, and an admiral, and I think I may have prevented a coup. So..."

"Oh," Zuko said again. "You prevented a coup?"

"Maybe." Jee looked at the available room on the bed, then sighed and sat down next to the kid. Fire Lord. "There was a lot of drinking involved," he explained.

Zuko stared at him, confused. Then he shrugged. "Well... thanks," he said. "I mean, I know Sokka and Toph don't get it..."

"How old is that Toph girl again?" Jee asked.

"Uh... twelve? I think her birthday's in spring," Zuko said. "Anyway, she's wrong."

It was probably the booze. That was what Jee was going to blame it on. He peered up at Zuko and said, "Sure, she thinks you can do better. And she's right, but that doesn't mean you can't fuck who you want."

Zuko's eyes--well, the one eye that worked, still--went wide. "W--what do you mean?"

Jee reached up a hand and poked him in the chest. "I'm not your soulmate," he said. "I'm not your age, I'm not going to marry you, we're not eternal and forever. I don't know what kind of doms you've been seeing, or what romance scrolls you've been reading, but you don't have to justify every middle-aged soldier you want to take into your bed."

Zuko was still staring, this time down at his finger. "I haven't really," he said.

Jee blinked at him. "You haven't really what?"

"Seen any doms. Or... read romance scrolls."

Jee slapped his forehead. "Right." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "All I mean is... don't blame yourself if things don't work out. Some things are supposed to be temporary, okay?"

Zuko just looked more frightened. "You... want this to be temporary?"

"Oh, fire and _flood_ ," Jee groaned. "No, I think you'll rightly get bored one day and find someone who doesn't need a full fucking night of sleep every night because he's old!"

"I'm not bored," Zuko said, sounding startled. "And... you're not old!"

Jee covered his eyes with his hand. He was too tired to be having this conversation. Merciful Ancestors, hadn't he served his nation enough tonight? He surely didn't also need to explain relationships to a sixteen-year-old who had spent his formative years on a boat?

He peeked out from between his fingers. Zuko was still pouting at him.

"You're very cute," Jee said. "And you're very bad at flattery. Can we talk in the morning?"

Zuko's expression went from anxious to resigned. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

"Fine. Just put out the lamps first?" Jee rubbed his eyes again and hoped Zuko didn't kick in his sleep.

Zuko nodded, then narrowed his eyes at the lamp on the other side of the room. He breathed in, then out, and the flame went out.

Jee blinked a couple times in the darkness, then said, "You're very good at that."

"Thanks," Zuko said, and it was the first thing he'd sounded confident about all night.

* * *

The guard who opened the door the next morning wasn't Keiko. Jee glared at him until he raised his hands in surrender and backed off.

Zuko jerked awake when the door closed and nearly elbowed Jee in the chest. "Hey, watch it," Jee said.

"Oh," Zuko said, then turned and rolled over until he was facing Jee. "Oh!"

Difficult or not, there was something to be said for waking up next to a naked sixteen-year-old submissive. Jee grabbed Zuko's wrists and in a single move pinned him to the bed.

Zuko stared up at him, startled and a little scared. Jee narrowed his eyes. "You remember your safeword?"

"Oh!" Zuko said. "I mean, yes."

"Good." He tightened his grip on Zuko's wrists and pressed him into the mattress again. "Don't move."

This time, he had his own fucking supply of lube. It was good stuff--the Fire Nation's herbalists had worked hard to create a salve which was slippery, didn't irritate the skin, and was most importantly _not flammable._ Jee dipped his fingers into the jar and quirked an eyebrow in Zuko's direction.

Zuko swallowed, but kept his hands where Jee had put them. Good boy.

Remembering how things had gone last time, Jee smoothed his hand over Zuko's stomach, then very slowly massaged a lubed finger around Zuko's asshole.

"Ohhhh," Zuko said when Jee's finger slipped inside him. "That... feels nice."

"You're surprised?"

"I didn't... " Zuko closed his eyes and moaned. "Oh, wow."

Prostate. Worked every time. Jee grinned and crooked his finger, and Zuko's hips bucked.

When he slid a second finger in beside the first, Zuko moved his arms. "Unh-uh," Jee said, slapping Zuko on the thigh since he couldn't reach the offending wrists. "Do I have to tie you up?"

Zuko's wide-eyed stare was unreadable. Jee poked him in the navel. "Rope. Do I tie your wrists to my bed, or do I punish you the next time you move your hands?"

"You won't have to punish me!" Zuko's wrists went firmly back in place as though they'd been glued. "I'll be good!"

Good enough. Jee grinned and slicked up his cock.

This time, Zuko relaxed into it, and the only sound he made was a moan of surprise and pleasure. Jee braced himself and thrust, and Zuko moaned again, then wrapped his leg around Jee's waist and dug in with his heel.

"Mmmm," Jee said, and settled himself on his elbows. "You feel good."

"Do I?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah," Jee said. "Yeah. Good. Tight--"

Zuko whimpered and reached up to grab at Jee's shoulder. Jee snatched at the offending wrist and pinned it back to the mattress, grinding hard against the struggling boy. "Mmm," Jee said. "Don't try that again--"

Zuko gasped, rolled his hips, and came.

 _Teenagers,_ Jee thought, as he pushed firmly against Zuko's squirming body. _Fuck, teenagers will be the death of me--_

Zuko stopped shuddering and clutched at Jee's shoulders, panting. Jee took a couple breaths, then asked, "You want me to stop, or keep going?"

"Oh, uh, I don't know--"

"And you moved your hands again."

Zuko blinked, then snatched his hands to his chest, then gingerly stretched them back over his head. Jee chuckled and rocked his hips forward, and Zuko moaned.

"Too much?" he asked.

"Noooo, I don't want to stop..."

Fuck yes, that was it. Jee grabbed Zuko's wrist again, buried his face in the kid's hair. Fuuuuck yes, tight and hot and open and willing and--

His own orgasm was _well fucking deserved_ at that point. Jee sucked in air, let go of Zuko's arm, and rolled over onto his back with a sigh.

Zuko was the first to say anything. "That was so much better than sex with my girlfriend back home."

Jee snorted, then started laughing. Zuko sat up, eyes wide and expression incredulous. "What?"

"Nothing." Jee reached up to ruffle his hair. "You'll understand when you've had more experience."

Zuko just looked affronted at that. Jee sat up and poked him in the chest to forestall any argument. "Now. What did I say about moving your hands?"

* * *

Zuko didn't complain again about not being able to sit down, which was good of him, Jee thought. The Fire Lord seemed to have new strength in his posture as he took his leave of his friends, and then said farewell to a bleary-eyed and blinking Admiral Kinzo. Then it was back to the ship and they were on their way to Jining.

They stopped at three more hospitals on the coast. Jee didn't complain, but after the second one he stopped going. If that was something the Fire Lord needed to do for himself, it wasn't something Jee needed to witness.

As for the rest, Zuko was still finding his way into Jee's bed every night. The sex was--okay. It had been a long time, anyway, and Zuko was starting to learn what he liked, but still wasn't entirely good at communicating his interests. Or his plans.

The town of Jining was on the mouth of the Golden River, a small but thriving port of trade for the colonies. Jee saw to the ship while the Fire Lord met the governor of the region.

Politics, it seemed, was something else Zuko wasn't entirely good at yet.

"They're not even _trying_ to work with the Earth Kingdom!" Zuko was yelling, and pacing, in Jee's quarters at the end of the day. Jee was having another one of those moments where the line between his personal life and his career had been shattered, and he was about to stick himself on one of the pieces.

"Well, sir," he finally opined, "The Earthbenders were until recently trying to kill them. Not a lot of incentive to play nice."

Zuko threw up his hands. "But the war is over!"

Jee raised an eyebrow. After a moment he said, "Of course, sir."

The next day, the rest of the colonies' governors showed up. Jee figured they'd come as much because they wanted to gawk at the new Fire Lord as they respected his authority, but he wasn't going to say _that_ out loud.

"I swear, they're waiting for me to declare an Agni Kai on someone," Zuko grumbled at lunch. "And I might do it if none of them start listening."

"What do you want them to do?"

Zuko pushed his fingers through his hair. "I want them to stop fighting and understand that I'm right!"

"Yeah?"

Zuko glared at him, then sighed and sat down on the bed. "They say I don't know what I'm talking about. That the Earth Kingdom doesn't even _want_ the territory back. That they can't return the homes of people who have been here for generations. But that's ridiculous! We stole this land and we have to give it back!"

"They've made their careers on keeping the land," Jee pointed out. "It's a little tough for them to change that up now."

"I just need something to get them to listen to me," Zuko said.

Jee shrugged. "Guess you'll have to figure something out, then."

The next day he woke up and found a note from the Fire Lord ordering him to get the ship ready to head back to the Fire Nation and Caldera. Jee raised an eyebrow, then poked his head outside. "Have you seen the Fire Lord?" he asked the guards.

Haji, who was normally Kimiko's partner, shook his head. "Not all morning."

Jee decided this was a bad sign. He delegated the ship-launching duties to Fong and went in search of Zuko.

The Fire Lord appeared to have vanished. Oh, all the secretaries he talked to had messages from him, all the governors had received letters, but nobody had actually _seen_ Fire Lord Zuko all day. Almost as if he were playing hooky.

Jee thought about that for a moment, then headed for the stables.

No sign of Fire Lord regalia, but around the back there was a sixteen-year-old kid in Earth Kingdom clothes with a wide-brimmed hat, wresting with a pair of ostrich-horses. "C'mon!" he grumbled.

"Need a hand?" Jee said.

Zuko looked up, startled. Then one of the ostrich-horses nudged him and he fell over. "Augh!"

Jee did not laugh. He walked over, took the reins, and gave Zuko a hand up. The kid grumbled but didn't comment. "So," he asked as Zuko brushed himself off. "What's the big idea?"

Zuko ducked his head and looked away to the left. "I was going to say goodbye. I just didn't want you to try and stop me."

"You're the Fire Lord," Jee said flatly. "That would be treason."

Zuko stared at him for a second, then blushed. "Oh. Right."

"But it does look like you're going to run off into the Earth Kingdom," Jee said. "Which would be abandoning your responsibilities as Fire Lord and leaving your people leaderless."

Zuko looked confused. "So would that also be treason, or are you saying--"

"Oh, shut up about the treason thing," Jee said irritably. "What are you _doing?_ "

"I'm..." Zuko looked uncomfortable. "I'm going into the Earth Kingdom. But not to abandon my responsibilities. I _have_ responsibilities... to the people I hurt. To the people _we_ hurt. And I have to face that."

Jee closed his eyes for a moment. "Please tell me you have some sort of plan."

"I have a plan!"

"A plan more coherent than 'wander around and hope things work out,'"

Zuko flushed. "I have a real plan! I know where I'm going. And then I'm going to go to Ba Sing Se and see Uncle, and meet with the Earth King... if they've found him..."

"What?" Jee said, startled.

"Oh," Zuko said. "Didn't you know? The Earth King was missing. Anyway. If he's back, I want to talk with him about the handover. See if he can appoint someone to look after things from the Earth Kingdom side." He glared at Jee. "I _have_ thought this through."

Jee raised an eyebrow. "So who's in charge until you get back?"

Zuko stared at him blankly, then looked away, embarrassed. "Uh. Well. I should probably write a note to Admiral Jeong Jeong?"

"Yes, you probably should."

Zuko sighed and some of the fight went out of his posture. "I have to do this," he said, with a quiet determination that Jee wasn't sure he'd heard before.

"Your honor at stake?"

Zuko smiled at that. "It really is this time, I think." He sighed. "It's not just to make someone else happy. I need to make this right."

Jee winced. "You sure you can't wait until you're more settled on the throne and maybe we've got some of the colony issues sorted out first?"

Zuko just looked stubborn at that. "I have to do this now."

Jee sighed. "Of course you do, sir."

The lead ostrich-horse, the one Jee had hold of, had a pack slung over its back. Zuko rummaged in the pack and pulled out a blank piece of paper, an inkstone, and a small brush. He quickly wrote out a short message and handed the paper to Jee. "Okay. Admiral Jeong Jeong should be able to handle everything with that."

"I hope so, sir," Jee said.

Zuko looked nervously at him. "I... is there something that I... that you and I..."

Jee was a little startled. Oh, sure, he'd had a couple serious relationships with subs where he'd done those kind of rituals, binding and unbinding, but... but this was Zuko's first real anything as a sub, wasn't it. Even if it wasn't a real relationship. "You don't have any obligations to me," he said, as gently as he could. "Just get yourself home safe. And soon."

"I will," Zuko promised. He hesitated briefly, then threw his arms around Jee's neck in a hug. "Thanks. For everything."

The hat got in the way, but Jee managed to hug him back somehow. "My pleasure. Sir."

Zuko chuckled at that. Then he pulled back, jumped on the lead ostrich horse, and rode slowly off toward the Earth Kingdom.

Jee sighed as he watched the kid disappear into the forest. "Keiko is going to kill me."


	8. Margins of Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Adventures are Had by Many, Many People.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, the style in which I wrote this chapter was supposed to make writing it faster. Obviously, that didn't happen! It just made it really easy to add lots and lots of characters. So here, have a couple chapters in a style borrowed from The Water Margin; see how many other references you can spot!

In the village of Ming on the Chalcedony River in the Earth Kingdom, there was a family called Yim who only had one daughter, Lin. She was a fine tall girl who had never shown any propensity for Earthbending, but who had worked hard and shown great piety towards her parents and her mother's sister who lived with them. The year that the Avatar defeated the Phoenix King and ended the Great War was the year of her fifteenth birthday, and she was brought to the temple in the courtyard of the village where the Priest of Stone was waiting for her. She was dressed in her finest robes of green and brown, for earth, with three jade hair pins in her hair for luck and gold and hematite rings on her hands to ground her to the earth and her Aspect.

Her mother and father brought her to the temple and bowed to the priest, then nudged Lin to follow. Lin was reluctant, but she gave the proper five obeisances.

"Now, Lin, it's time for you to go into the temple and complete the ceremony," Lin's mother said.

"But mother," Lin said, "I still don't think that this will work."

"Nonsense!" Lin's mother said. "My parents and their parents before them and their parents before them and the ancestors of everyone in this village and the ancestors of everyone in the Earth Kingdom have all performed the ritual for discovering their Aspect. You're going to go in there and you're going to do it, or you're going to bring shame on your whole family."

Lin quavered and hesitated and finally followed the priest into the temple. There he led her to the darkened back room and lit the incense, and directed Lin to sit on the cushion before the altar. Then he handed her the ceremonial stones, the large smooth pearl and the heavy sphere of bloodstone.

"Weigh the stones in your hands," the priest said, "for the one which calls most to your spirit will guide your Aspect from this day forth."

Lin weighed the stones in her hands, and rolled them back and forth from one hand to the other. They both seemed quite nice to her, but neither one especially called to her spirit. At first the smoothness and delicacy of the pearl would rest most easily in her palms, then the solid weight of the bloodstone would feel like an anchor between her fingers. But no matter how much she concentrated or how many times she weighed the stones out, she found she liked them both equally.

The priest was getting quite upset after so many minutes of sitting there watching Lin play with the stones. Finally Lin looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "I can't do it! I can't choose!"

"It's not about choosing!" the priest sputtered. "It's about coming to a realization of your Aspect! It should be obvious!"

"Well it isn't obvious to me!" Lin cried, and thrust the sacred stones back into his hands and stormed out into the courtyard.

Her parents and the rest of the village were standing there waiting for her to come out, but Lin's announcement that she still didn't know what her Aspect was stunned everyone. "But..." Lin's mother said.

"Now, daughter," Lin's father said. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Lin's mother said. "Of course she knows her Aspect! Everyone knows their Aspect!"

"But! I! Don't!" Lin shouted, and threw her arms out in a swoop.

The movement of her arms threw up a gust of wind that blew out in a circle and knocked the entire crowd off their feet. Lin stared at the damage as the villagers picked themselves up. "Did I do that?" she asked.

"That's impossible!" her mother said.

Lin's father dusted himself off and just nodded. "Actually, dear, it runs in my family. It just skipped me."

"What happened?" Lin asked.

"Well, dear," her father said, "That's what I mean to tell you. Your grandmother was an Air Nomad. And you're an Airbender."

The rest of the village was frightened to hear this, because the Fire Nation had always dealt with even rumors of Airbenders by sending a squad of Firebenders to burn a village harboring one to the ground. Lin's mother pointed out that the War was over, which meant that the Fire Nation was going to come nowhere near them. Still, the rest of the village was adamant that Lin could not stay there and put them in danger.

So Lin's aunt packed her a satchel with food and a change of clothing and a water skin, and Lin's mother gave her a quarterstaff with iron tips, and Lin's father said "In a village upriver called Yuncheng, my sister Wing-chun lives, and she is also an Airbender. She learned from our mother, who learned from the elders at the Western Air Temple. If you go find her, she will take you into her household, and she will teach you what she knows."

Lin started off along the road to Yuncheng with a song in her heart. It was not long before she came to a fork in the road, and at the fork found a young man with two ostrich-horses which had gotten their reins stuck in a tree.

"Wow," Lin said, startling him. "How'd that happen?"

He turned around and Lin stifled a gasp. He was a very pretty young man, not much older than her, but the left side of his face was covered in a burn scar which stretched over his eye to his ear.

"Uh," the young man said. "One of them saw a snakeapede. Then bolted. I hung on, but now I can't get them loose."

Lin leaned on her quarterstaff. "Do you need a hand?"

The young man scowled. "No!" Then the ostrich-horse tugged at its reins and squealed. He looked over at the ostrich-horse, then back at Lin. "Um... yes? Thanks?"

Lin helped get the ostrich-horses free. "Where are you heading?"

"Um... this village up the river named Yuncheng," he said. "I have to visit a... friend."

"I'm also going to Yuncheng!" Lin said. "I'm going to visit my father's sister."

"Oh," he said. "Um... maybe we should walk together?"

"That sounds good!" Lin said. "My name is Lin, and my family name is Yim."

"My name is Lee," the young man said. "... Oh! And my family name is... uh... er... Yaozhong."

"Nice to meet you, Lee," Lin said.

They started walking toward Yuncheng together. "So," Lin asked. "Who's your friend in the village?"

"Uh... just this girl I know," Lee said.

"Dom or sub?" Lin teased.

Lee blushed brightly. "It's not like that!"

"I'm sorry," Lin said. "Anyway, one of the reasons I'm going to visit the village is because I haven't figured out my Aspect."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"I mean, I had my ritual, but it didn't work," Lin said. "I went into the temple and I held the two stones in my hands, but nothing happened!"

"What do you mean nothing happened?"

"I wasn't given the sign to know my Aspect," Lin said. "And then I waved my arms and Airbended!"

Lee stopped walking and stared at her. "You're an Airbender?"

"I am! My dad says it runs in his family. I'm going to visit his sister who lives in Yuncheng, who's going to teach me how."

Lee stared some more. "There are more Airbenders in Yuncheng?"

"Just my aunt Wing-chun, I think."

"This is amazing!" Lee said. "I thought the only Airbender left was the Avatar! He's going to be so excited when he finds out!"

"You know the Avatar?" Lin said.

Lee looked startled, then shifty. "Um. Well, I met him, once? When he came through my village. He was really nice."

"Wow, you've met the Avatar!" Lin said. "Tell me about him!"

"Well, uh," Lee said. "Oh! He said something about not having an Aspect. Apparently the monks at the Air Temples never have one. They just... do what they want."

"So it's normal that I wasn't able to pick?" Lin said. "Oh, that's such a relief!" And she swept Lee into a hug.

Lee squawked, startled, but hugged her back. Then they continued on toward Yuncheng, Lin asking Lee all the questions she could think of about the Avatar.

It took them until evening to reach Yuncheng, and Lin headed off toward her aunt's house to pay her respects and to ask about Airbending. Lee led the ostrich-horses to the other side of the village, where the healer's house was. He asked the woman who worked there where the young healer Song was.

"Song's gone back to her mother's house!" the woman said. "She can't work so long because of her twisted ankle. It's a good thing it's been such a mild summer."

"I'm sorry to hear about her ankle," Lee said. "Thank you for your help." And he donated ten ounces of gold to the running of the healing house.

When he reached Song's mother's home, Song's mother was outside weeding the front path. She scowled when Lee came up the path. "I remember you. You're that hooligan who came here with your uncle pretending to be simple refugees. You stole our ostrich-horse and dishonored my daughter as her guest."

Lee stopped in the path, got down on his knees and kowtowed. "You're right. I'm sorry for my dishonorable actions. Please, my honored uncle had nothing to do with it. The decision was mine and the shame is mine alone." He hesitated, then blurted, "I brought you another ostrich-horse."

Song's mother's face was stony. "It's Song you'll have to apologize to. I will permit you to go inside and speak to her."

"Thank you," Lee said. "Um... here." He stood and gave her the reins of the second ostrich-horse. "Her name is Firebreather."

Song's mother raised an eyebrow. "How sweet."

"She's really good-tempered! I mean, mostly." Lee scooted around Song's mother on the path. "I'm going to go apologize to Song now."

"You do that, young man," Song's mother said.

Lee went inside. Song was sitting by the fire, her leg propped up on a pile of cushions. She looked up, and her eyes narrowed. "Oh. It's you."

Lee got on his knees and started to kowtow. "Please, I've come to apologize for my--"

"Fetch me my blanket," Song said. "It's over there by the door."

Lee blinked, then got up and fetched the blanket and spread it over Song's lap. Then he backed up and got back on his knees. "I'm sorry for my dishonorable--"

"I need to write a letter," Song said. "Go get me my ink and paper."

Lee got up and found Song's ink and brushes and paper, and a board to serve as a desk. He helped her prop the desk up on cushions, then backed away and got back down on his knees. "I have to apologize--"

"Sssh," Song said. "I can't write with you talking."

Lee stayed on his knees with his hat touching the floor while Song wrote her letter. Then he took away her ink and her desk and put them away while the letter dried, then put the letter by the door so Song's mother would remember to take it and give it to a messenger. Then he went back to her side and kowtowed again. "Please, I am so sorry for--"

"My dressing needs to be changed," Song said. "There are fresh bandages and herbs in the basket by the door."

Lee got the basket, then unwrapped Song's ankle and cleaned off the old herbs, made a dressing and wrapped her ankle back up tight. Then he stepped back and got down on his knees again. "I came here to apologize for--"

"Pour me a cup of tea," Song said, pointing at the teapot on the table.

Lee got up and poured her a cup of tea and brought it back to her. Song waited until he was back on his knees before taking a sip. Then she held out the cup to him. "This is cold."

Lee narrowed his eyes. Then he stood, took the cup from Song, and breathed on it. When he handed it back to her it was steaming hot.

"Oh!" she said, startled. "You're... you're a Firebender?"

Lee got back on the floor, kowtowed properly, and started his explanation again. "I came here to apologize for the dishonorable way I treated your hospitality. My uncle had nothing to do with it. The shame is mine alone. I brought you another ostrich-horse to try and repay you." He sat back up, still on his knees, and said, "Yes, I am a Firebender. My name isn't Lee, it's Zuko. And I'm the Fire Lord. When my uncle and I came to your village, we had just been exiled from the Fire Nation. We really were refugees. I'm sorry we had to lie to you."

"Wait," Song said. "Start over. You're the Fire Lord? What are you doing here?"

"I came to apologize," Fire Lord Zuko said. He stood up and bowed in Fire Nation fashion. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, Healer Song. Please take the ostrich-horse. Her name is... um, Firebreather. She's very well-trained." He paused. "I mean, I assume. I got her from the army's herd, and I didn't have any trouble on the way here, I mean, aside from the time I got the reins stuck in a tree, but that was my fault, and I'm sorry I didn't practice this part of the speech. I'll just go now."

"Wait!" Song said. "Stay for dinner, at least?"

"Does that mean you accept my apology?" Zuko asked.

"I do," Song said, and blushed. "I'm sorry I was ordering you around earlier."

"That's all right, I deserved it," Zuko said. "Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with."

So the Fire Lord stayed and helped Song's mother cook dinner, and ate at their table very politely, and told them that if they ever needed to write to him, they should send word to his uncle's tea shop in Ba Sing Se. And then he mounted the other ostrich-horse, this one named Moleslayer, and rode east into the mountains.

Lin had walked to the home of her aunt and been admitted by her aunt's housekeeper. Lin allowed the housekeeper to take her things to a room, then went to the back garden, where her aunt was practicing Airbending.

Lin watched in amazement as Wing-chun whirled and spun and moved her arms, and the wind in the garden whipped around her. She was a tall woman with two long braids pinned in a circlet around her head, wearing a long green hanbok. She finished her set of exercises and turned to welcome Lin. "Niece! I haven't seen you since you were as high as my knee. What are you doing in Yuncheng?"

Lin explained about her Aspect ritual and how she had started Airbending. Wing-chun looked excited. "So we've got another one in our family! I'll have to train you properly. I learned from my mother, who was an Air Nomad before the temples got destroyed. Show me what you know, and I'll start training you."

The first day Wing-chun showed Lin the first training sequence, and criticized her technique. "Lighter. More relaxed. You are like air. Don't overextend your movements. Come back to your center line, and you will be able to move no matter what."

The second day Wing-chun showed her a mu ren zhuang practice dummy, and had her start practicing moving her arms through the sequence against the wooden blocks.

The fifth day Wing-chun took her back to the yard and had her start practicing chi sao, sticking hands. Lin learned how to keep her hands in place while moving on the balls of her feet.

By the end of the second week, Wing-chun had taught her the basics of all the forms. "Now it is time for you to practice," she said.

"But I haven't learned how to actually Bend air!" Lin complained.

"Practice your basics! The air is everywhere, it will come to you," Wing-chun told her.

From then on, Wing-chun put Lin on a very grueling schedule. She had to practice every day from dawn until midday, when she was allowed a short break. Then she had to practice until sundown, when she could stop to do her chores.

Lin began to resent the training, and resent that she wasn't learning anything about Airbending. She hadn't been able to do any Airbending since the day of her Aspect ritual.

One day she snuck away from the house before dawn and went to the village. There she saw Song the healer putting her bags together on the back of an ostrich-horse and saying goodbye to her friends.

"Where are you going?" Lin asked.

"I'm going to the Herbalist Institute in Taku! I've always meant to go to learn more about rare herbs for healing, but it's always been too dangerous with the War. But now the War is over, so I'm going to go!" Song said. "What's wrong, Lin? I haven't seen you for a few weeks!"

"I've been training with my aunt," Lin said, "But she's very strict and she won't let me get away, even for a few hours. And I haven't even learned proper Airbending! Please let me come with you? That boy Lee I traveled with said the Avatar has returned, and I want to try and find him!"

Song's eyes widened. "Didn't you know? That boy's name wasn't Lee. That was Fire Lord Zuko. Of course he would know the Avatar!"

"Oh!" Lin said. "I should have asked him if he would introduce me! But I thought my aunt could teach me everything I wanted to know! Why didn't I say anything?"

"Well," Song said, "Fire Lord Zuko said that his uncle has a tea shop in Ba Sing Se. You could go there and ask if he knows the Avatar. It's worth a try."

"That sounds wonderful! Thank you, Song!" Lin said. Then she hurried off home to make her apologies to her aunt, and pack her things for a journey to Ba Sing Se.

Song set out from Yuncheng on her ostrich-horse, Firebreather, and headed toward the Herbalist Institute. It was slow going, even on an ostrich-horse, because while the War was over there were still a lot of injured people around, and Song wanted to help wherever she could.

She was in a tiny village called Pin An helping bandage broken arms when a huge fight broke out between the two largest families in the village. The Wen family lined up on one side of the street, aunts and uncles and children yelling and pointing fingers across the road to the Ling family, who flooded the street on the other side. In the middle of the street there was an ox-hound, nibbling at the weeds in the road and stoically ignoring the noise.

All of a sudden, a huge gust of wind blew through the street, and next to the startled ox-hound landed a huge white six-legged creature with an arrow on its head. From its back jumped a young man--a boy, really--in orange and yellow robes holding a staff. "Halt!" he called out in a thin high voice. "I'm the Avatar!"

"The Avatar!" the matriarch of the Wen family said, impressed.

"The Avatar!" the patriarch of the Ling family echoed, also impressed.

"Oh! The Avatar!" Song said. "Hey, I have something I should tell you!"

The Avatar paused, hands outstretched toward each of the families. "Huh?" he said.

Song hurried forward, ignoring the looks she was getting from both sides of the road. "My name is Song Jiang, from Yuncheng town in Shandong province. And... well, long story short, there's an Airbender living in our village!"

The Avatar's eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open. He stared at Song for a long minute, then jumped thirty feet up in the air and yelled, "WOOHOOO!"

"Hey, what about our ox-hound?" Madame Wen yelled.

"OUR ox-hound!" Mr. Ling yelled back at her.

The Avatar landed lightly in the middle of the road and looked back and forth between Mr. Ling and Mrs. Wen. "Oh! Yeah, um, I think you should flip a coin. I'm going to go talk to Song now."

Song sat down next to the Avatar at the side of the road as the two families went back to shouting at each other. "There are other Airbenders?" the Avatar said, bouncing on his heels and staring at her with wide gray eyes. "Really?"

"Well," Song said, "There's a woman named Wing-chun Yim who has been living there as long as I can remember, but it's only recently that I've figured out that she's an Airbender. Her niece, Lin, came to stay with her a few weeks ago to learn how to Airbend, but Lin didn't get along with her aunt and decided to go to Ba Sing Se to try and find you."

"Oh wow!" the Avatar said, jumping up and spinning in place. "Two more Airbenders! I thought I was the last one! Oh, man, which way to your village?"

Song pointed the way, and the Avatar picked up his staff and jumped onto his flying bison's back. "Yip yip, Appa!" he cried, and the huge beast lowed, then launched himself into the sky.

The Avatar steered Appa back towards Shandong province and the town of Yuncheng. They circled the town and swooped in to the center to land in the center square.

"Hi, everyone!" he said to the people who came out to stare at him. "I'm the Avatar!"

"The Avatar!" the people of Yuncheng exclaimed happily.

The Avatar jumped down from Appa's back and looked around. "I'm trying to find someone called Wing-chun Yim," he said. "A girl named Song Jiang said she lived here."

A woman stepped forward from the crowd. "I'm Song Jiang's mother, Avatar," she said. "Ms. Yim's house is at the edge of town, but she isn't there."

"No!" The Avatar said, clutching at his heart. "What happened?"

"Her niece left for Ba Sing Se," Mrs. Jiang said. "And the next day she told everyone she'd thought about it and meditated and decided she needed to travel, too, to clear her mind. She headed off west three days ago."

The Avatar was stricken. He walked over to the side of the square and sat down on the grass with a thump, his staff falling to the ground beside him. To be so close and yet so far!

A shadow fell over him, and a woman said, "Hey. You look like you're having a great time," in an even, measured voice.

The Avatar looked up and suddenly beamed. "Mai!" he said, jumping to his feet and wrapping his arms around the woman in a hug. "What are you doing here? Weren't you staying at the Palace in the Fire Nation?"

"Oh, well," Mai said, and Aang could hear in her voice the slightest trace of disappointment. "Zuko and I had a talk, and I decided to leave."

Aang stepped back and frowned, stricken. "But why?"

"Hey, sometimes it doesn't work out," Mai said. "Don't worry about me. I'm going down to visit Ty Lee on Kyoshi Island."

Aang grinned. "Well, I could be heading down to Kyoshi Island. Want a lift?"

Mai's voice only got slightly happy. "Sounds great."

"Great!" Aang said, jumping to Appa's back. Mai looked around, then sprinted to a nearby tree, and used the springiness of its trunk to launch her onto Appa's saddle. "Yip, yip!" Aang said, and Appa rumbled and launched into the sky.

Mai rested on Appa's saddle and scratched Momo behind the ears as the ground dropped away and they sailed south. "So," Aang said, climbing back to sit next to her. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Mai said. "It's just that Zuko went off to help the Avatar and he came back a sub." She looked up at Aang's blank expression. "Not that I blame you, of course."

"And that's a bad thing?" Aang said.

Mai narrowed her eyes. "Maybe you're too young to understand."

"I am not!" Aang said, blushing. "I understand wanting dominant-Aspect things and submissive-Aspect things and I know how to tie people up, and I've thought of a bunch of stuff to do with Waterbending and Earthbending--ooh, and Airbending, and Firebending's obvious--" he broke off at her raised eyebrow. "I may be young, but I've thought about this a lot!"

"Well you've convinced me," Mai said.

Aang frowned at her. "I just don't get why people think you can only have some of those feelings," he said. "Only the dommy ones or the subby ones. Why not both?"

Mai sighed. "I don't know," she said. "But I only want to be on the receiving end of pain when I'm... you know. I'm good at fighting, but that's not the same thing."

Aang ducked his head for a moment. "Well..." he straightened up. "Maybe you could order Zuko to hit you?"

Mai stared at him blankly. "That's not how it works."

"Why not?"

"It just isn't. You can't order someone to be your dominant."

"But why not?"

"Augh!" Mai threw up her hands and Momo chittered at her. "It's just... you don't understand!"

Aang shrugged and hunched his shoulders. "Okay."

Mai sighed, and with a flicker of her hands had out a knife to pick her fingernails. "I'm sorry. I'm frustrated and horny. And I don't know why this happened to me."

Aang tucked his knees under his chin and frowned. "Isn't it better to be with someone who's happy with what they want, instead of not knowing?"

"I don't think I want to talk about this any more," Mai said. "How long is it going to take us to Kyoshi Island?"

They made camp overnight and continued on to Kyoshi Island the next day, where they reunited with Ty Lee and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors. But let's speak no more about that.

Wing-chun Yim in Yuncheng had watched her niece leave town for Ba Sing Se with a heavy heart. For a full day she neither practiced airbending, nor ate, nor drank anything but water. In the evening after meditating for hours she slipped into the Spirit World.

Out of the mists of the spirit world appeared Wing-chun's mother, Mui. She appeared as Wing-chun had never seen her in life, dressed in an Air Nomad's robes with tattoos displayed proudly. "Daughter," Mui said. "What is distressing you?"

"Mother," Wing-chun greeted her mother's spirit, "I have failed you. I tried to teach Airbending to my niece, Lin, who has the gift, but I was a cruel taskmaster and she left to seek out another teacher in the Avatar. I've dishonored your memory!"

Mui clucked her tongue and held out her hands. "You haven't done any such thing. Not all have the constitution to be teachers. You need to learn more about your inner strengths if you want to teach others."

"But how do I do that?" she asked.

"Oh, my dear sweet Wing-chun," Mui said. "You have shut yourself and your gift away for so long. But the Avatar has returned! Airbenders have awoken! It is time to go out into the world!"

With that, Wing-chun's vision ended. She thanked the spirit of her mother and broke her fast on bean curds. The next day, she gathered her things and left the town.

She wandered east and west as the road took her, without planning a destination. Eventually on the road near the city of Gaoling, she met two travelers, a woman about her age and a younger man. They were camped on the side of the road, eating a simple meal of rice and squab. "Hello," the woman called to Wing-chun. "Are you traveling alone?"

Wing-chun stopped and bowed. "I am," she said. "May I share your fire?"

"Sure," the man said.

She sat down at the fire and pulled out her own food, sharing nuts and berries in return for some rice. "I don't eat meat," she explained when they offered some of the squab, and the two strangers understood and shared their vegetarian food.

The woman was tall and slender, with long hair pulled into a simple braid, and golden eyes. She was wearing a traveling cloak in dark brown. The man was wearing fine eyeglasses, and a cape over an outfit made mostly of rags and scraps. "My name's Kuei," he introduced himself. "This is Ursa." The woman bowed. "And my bear, who is in the woods right now, is Mr. Fuzzy."

"Bear?" Wing-chun asked. "You mean platypus-bear?"

"Nope, just bear," Kuei said.

Wing-chun frowned. "Surely you mean armadillo-bear. Or skunk-bear?"

Kuei laughed. "No, just bear. Ah, here he is! Mr. Fuzzy, say hello to our friend!"

The creature that came lumbering out of the woods was a bear, with a cute hat on. Wing-chun nodded at the bear, out of surprise more than anything. "My name is Wing-chun," she said. "I come from Yuncheng town, in Shandong province. Are you two heading anywhere in particular?"

Ursa shook her head. "We are wandering, seeking enlightenment."

Wing-chun laughed, and bowed. "Well, we must be sisters-in-arms, then. I am also wandering, seeking enlightenment."

"Oh?" Kuei asked. "Anywhere in particular?"

"Not really," Wing-chun said. "Though in my travels, I have heard of a fortune-teller in Makapu Village named Aunt Wu. I've thought about seeing her and asking for her help."

"That sounds like a great idea," Kuei said. "Let's go there!"

So they turned northwest and traveled to the village of Makapu, in the shadow of the great volcano. Aunt Wu's house was in the center of the village, and the three of them plus Mr. Fuzzy walked up to find a kindly-faced mature woman lounging next to the portal, waiting for them. "Hello, Wing-chun, Ursa, Kuei," she greeted them, then turned to the bear. "Hello, Bosco."

Wing-chun frowned at Kuei. "I thought you said his name was Mr. Fuzzy?"

Kuei's eyes shifted sideways. "That's his code name."

"I have good news for you," Aunt Wu said. "You're all going on a journey to Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se?" Wing-chun said, startled, as she'd never thought of going somewhere so far away.

"Ba Sing Se?" Ursa said, wonderingly.

"Ba Sing Se?" Kuei said, guiltily.

"Urrrf?" Bosco said.

"Yes," Aunt Wu said. She smiled at them. "Wing-chun, your niece has gone to the city, but there you will find more than a reunion. Ursa, you may not feel that Ba Sing Se is home, but you will discover the way to return there. And Kuei..." Wu looked down her nose at him, and he blushed like an errant schoolboy. "You have responsibilities in Ba Sing Se that you have been avoiding."

"But I'm learning so much," he said sheepishly.

Aunt Wu's look was kind but firm. "You all have appointments in Ba Sing Se," she pronounced. "But not today! Why don't you come in and share some tea?"

Bosco waited outside while Wing-chun, Ursa, and Kuei all came inside, where they were served tea by Aunt Wu's assistant. "Aunt Wu," Wing-chun asked after they had all drank tea, "I saw a vision before I left Yuncheng which troubled me. I saw my mother, Mui, who told me I would not be a teacher until I learned about my inner strengths. How can I discover those strengths when I don't know any other Airbenders?"

"Oh, but there are other Airbenders," Aunt Wu said. "But the strength you seek is not in your skills as an Airbender. It is in your commitment to your family."

At this, Wing-chun let out a cry. "How can you say that I have a strong commitment to my family when I failed my niece as a teacher and drove her away?"

"Have no fear, all will be revealed to you," Aunt Wu said.

"How is it possible that I will return to my home?" Ursa asked, staring down into her tea. "That is... not allowed."

"You will have to trust in the forgiveness of Heaven and Earth," Aunt Wu said cryptically. "More than that I cannot reveal."

"I don't know that I _want_ to go back to Ba Sing Se," Kuei said.

Aunt Wu smiled again. "But you must," she said. "And I'd like you to take Meng along, as well."

"What?" Kuei said, echoed by the girl who had been serving them tea. "But..."

"Meng has learned all she can from me," Aunt Wu said. "I would consider it a great favor if you could accompany her on her journey."

None of them wanted to contradict Aunt Wu, least of all Meng. So the next day when they packed their bags and supplies, they had one new traveler on their way to Ba Sing Se.

Meanwhile, Fire Lord Zuko had made his way across the Earth Kingdom until he reached a small village in the plains west of the Si Wong desert. At the crossroads he turned down a small dirt path until he reached a large pen full of cowhogs and chickenpigs. The animals roused enough of a noise that by the time he reached the end of the road, all the people who lived in the small hut had turned out to see him.

Gansu, the head of the household, didn't have a sword, but he was leaning on a scythe with a little too much intent to be casual. Zuko reined in Moleslayer and waited.

"You're not wanted here, Firebender," Gansu's wife Sela said. She pulled her son Lee close to her leg.

Zuko bowed his head to the family. "I apologize for any distress I caused you. I came to bring you a gift, and some slight repayment."

Gansu's mouth tightened. "We don't want Fire Nation money."

"I'm not offering money." Zuko reached into Moleslayer's saddlebag and slowly drew out a scroll. He held it out toward Gansu.

Gansu stared at his hand and didn't move.

Zuko coughed nervously after a second. "Um, it's a letter. From Sansu."

Gansu's family all gasped, startled. Sansu was the family's eldest son, who had joined the Earth Kingdom military and vanished. The family had heard nothing from him for months.

"He's in a Fire Nation hospital on the south coast," Zuko said as Gansu hesitantly took the letter from him. "He was injured, and captured, but I saw him and he's going to be all right."

Sela's hands were shaking as she leaned over Gansu's arm to look at the scroll. Gansu broke the seal and read the letter, which was full of felicitations for his parents and stories for his younger brother.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Lee said to Zuko when his father had finished reading. "Is Sansu gonna come home soon?"

"The healer said he was gonna be another week or two when I saw him," Zuko said. "But he's got an ostrich-horse, so he'll be on his way soon."

Gensu cleared his throat. "I... I suppose being the Fire Lord, you've got better things to do than eat at a peasant's table."

"Actually," Zuko said, "I've been riding all day, and dinner sounds wonderful."

So the Earth Kingdom farming family and the Fire Lord reconciled. But we'll speak no more of that now.

Lin Yim had set out on the road to Ba Sing Se, heading north around the Si Wong Desert. She was on the road to Full Moon Bay when she came across an overturned wagon and a group of guardsmen lying on the ground near it, moaning and berating themselves. Lin leaned on her staff and frowned at them. "What happened to you guys?"

"We have been robbed!" the leader of the men exclaimed. "Bandits came out of the marsh and attacked us and carried off our cargo!"

"What were you--" Lin started to ask, but was interrupted by a rolling, grinding sound from the west, like a steady avalanche. Moments later, an avalanche rolled up the road toward them, guided by a small female Earthbender and carrying a man in Water Tribe clothing wearing a sword and a woman in a green kimono and warrior face paint. The Earthbender stopped the moving hill, and with a twitch of her heels sank the edifice into the path again.

"Hi!" The man said. "What happened to you guys?"

"They were robbed," Lin said.

"Bandits!" the caravan leader cried. "From the marsh!"

The man raised an eyebrow and exchanged a glance at the taller woman. The Earthbender snorted. "What, you guys couldn't take a bunch of bandits?"

"Toph," the woman said warningly, then turned to the guards. "What did they steal?"

"Everything!" the caravan leader exclaimed. "The silks, the gold, the wine--they took everything! All the gifts we were bringing to Ba Sing Se for Councilor Ma Feng's birthday!"

The man and the warrior woman exchanged a glance. The short Earthbender frowned. "So how did they beat you?"

"There were three of them," the caravan leader said, trembling. "Three huge Earthbenders, who had skills far beyond ours. They came out of the marsh with no warning!"

"Eugh," Toph said, "what would Earthbenders be doing in a swamp?"

"Don't worry," the man said, ignoring his shorter companion and holding up his hands. "We'll head in there and check it out. We'll get your stuff back."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" the caravan leader said.

Lin stepped forward and cleared her throat. "Can I come with you guys?"

"Sure," the taller woman said. "My name is Suki, of the warriors of Kyoshi. Who are you?"

"My name is Lin Yim, from Yuncheng in Shandong. I was going to Ba Sing Se to find the Avatar."

"What do you want to see Twinkle-Toes for?" the short Earthbender said.

The man cleared his throat. "That's Toph Bei Fong, and I'm Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. We know the Avatar."

"You know the Avatar?" Lin exclaimed.

"Our caravan!" the caravan-master cried.

"Okay," Toph said, "We're gonna go check out these bandits in the marsh, and then we'll talk about tracking down Aang, sound good?"

Before anyone could answer Toph shifted her feet, and the section of road that held the four of them lifted and started carrying them down off the road, into the trees.

When they got three or four li from the road the earth shook around them, and as Toph halted their forward motion, three pillars of stone rose into the air, ridden by three Earthbenders who struck poses atop their columns like living statues. "Halt, intruders!" said the first, a burly man built like a barrel with a bushy black beard. "Why have you come to the marsh of Liangshan?"

Sokka drew his sword as Suki readied her fans and Lin braced herself with her staff. "And why should we tell you?" he asked.

"Ha!" the second strange Earthbender said, raising her arms. She was a skinny woman with wiry muscles and long brown hair. "You are addressing the Three Tigers of Liangshan!"

"Large Tiger Mao Hu!" the first Earthbender said.

"Lean Tiger Gu Win!" the second Earthbender said.

"Stumpy Tiger Wang Ying!" the third Earthbender said. He was even shorter and broader than the first Earthbender, though he had no beard and bristly red hair.

"Stumpy tiger wang?" Toph muttered. Lin suppressed the urge to smack her.

Sokka pointed his sword at Lean Tiger Gu Win, who was in front of him, and demanded, "Why did you rob that caravan?"

"Come fight us and find out!" Lean Tiger challenged, and jumped off her pillar at Sokka.

Thus followed a furious battle. Sokka and Suki worked as a team to dispatch Lean Tiger Gu Win. Lin used her staff and her limited Airbender training to beat aside or avoid the attacks of Large Tiger Mao Hu. She was able to avoid being smashed for long enough that Toph finished grappling Stumpy Tiger Wang Ying and Earthbent all three of the Tigers into stone boxes with their arms and legs pinned together.

"Now," Toph said, dusting her hands off and settling into an Earthbent chair with a relaxed posture, "Why don't you answer my friend's questions?"

"We're sorry!" Lean Tiger Gu Win said. She shook her head and tried to squeeze out of the stone box, then sighed. "We are all outcasts from our village. We tried to stand up to the corrupt men and women who were squeezing the peasants dry. But we were thrown out instead! The birthday gifts for Counselor Ma Feng were extorted from the labor of the honest working people of our village, and we intended to steal them back."

"Hmmm," Suki said.

"They're telling the truth," Toph said nonchalantly.

Sokka stroked his chin in thought. "We're going to Ba Sing Se," he said, "And we're going to meet the Avatar. You can come with us and explain to him what's going on."

"The Avatar?" Large Tiger Mao Hu exclaimed.

"Sure, we know the Avatar," Toph said.

"Yeah, we'll take you guys and this stuff to Ba Sing Se, we'll get in touch with Aang, and he can help sort it out," Sokka said. "I'm sure the guys at your village will listen to the Avatar."

In a few minutes, they were sliding along down the road past the caravan again. "Hey, we're taking your stuff to Ba Sing Se," Suki called to the caravan master. "Don't worry about it!"

"But--" the caravan master yelled, before he vanished out of sight behind them.

Meanwhile, in Caldera, Admiral and Regent Jeong Jeong was practicing a set of advanced Firebending techniques in the palace garden when General Hsifu asked for an audience. He finished the set and waited for the general by the pond.

"Admiral Jeong Jeong," the General said. "I have urgent information about a plot to overthrow Fire Lord Zuko!"

And because of this, dragons rose in the west, and water and earth mingled in the south. To learn more, read the next chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Yaozhong" is, as close as I could figure, a way to pronounce the characters that also make up the name "Tanaka", one of the most common Japanese surnames.
> 
> Yim Wing-chun is the (possibly mythical) creator of the martial art that bears her name. It was created in a completely different place and comes from different schools than bagua, the martial art that forms the basis of Airbending, but some of the philosophies of movement are similar.
> 
> Song Jiang, the timely rain, from Yuncheng County in Shandong Province, is the hero of The Water Margin.
> 
> Liangshan marsh is, of course, where the Heroes of Liangshan in The Water Margin live. Of course, there's also a mountain there, so it's sort of Liangshan marsh and Liangshan mountain.
> 
> Stumpy Tiger Wang Ying is straight out of The Water Margin. He marries Hu Sanniang, who is also known as Ten Feet of Steel because she dual-wields five-foot-long swords.
> 
> "Stealing the birthday gifts" is another one of those stories from The Water Margin. It's okay to rob them if the money was extorted!
> 
> And yes, all the chapters in The Water Margin end like this.


	9. Margins of Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which adventures, for many many people, bring them to Ba Sing Se.

Admiral Jeong Jeong led General Hsifu into his study and sat behind his desk. He leaned forward on his elbows and tapped his fingers together. "Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention, General," he said. "I assume that Princess Azula is involved in this conspiracy?"

"Er, yes," the General said. "And she has a cadre of associates in the highest levels of the Fire Nation military."

"Which used to include Admiral Hu, General Lin, General An-Fong, Counselor Troi, and Madame Tong?" Jeong Jeong said.

General Hsifu blinked. "Um... yes. Might I ask--"

"Madame Tong came to me last week, when Azula cast her out of her inner circle," Jeong Jeong said tiredly. "Geo Troi the week before that, and General An-Fong two weeks before that. Azula has been running through supporters rather quickly."

"I... am glad you have taken precautions against her," Hsifu said. "If I can be of any assistance--"

"Thank you," Jeong Jeong said. "I will summon you when you are needed."

When General Hsifu had left, Jeong Jeong sighed and cradled his head in his hands. When he had meditated enough to regain a sense of perspective, he gathered himself and went into the princess' wing.

Azula was seated at a table writing letters. Her hair was bound up behind her in a complicated knot which did much to hide the fact that it had been cut off in jagged chunks. She wrote a final line on her scroll, then rolled it up and held it up to the candle until it caught fire.

Admiral Jeong Jeong bowed, for he was willing to be polite when it served to expedite things, and greeted the princess. Princess Azula sighed and waved at him to be seated. He sat.

"Princess Azula," Jeong Jeong said, "I understand that you are not happy here."

"How could I be unhappy?" she asked wryly. "I have all the conveniences of a convict."

"You have been keeping yourself busy."

Azula's gaze went sharp. "I have to have my amusements."

"And pretensions to rule?"

Azula sat up straighter and her nostrils flared. "Who told you? Who?"

"Your Highness," Jeong Jeong said, sidestepping the issue, "it may be time to accept that we cannot heal your mind. The best healers in the Fire Nation have come to see you. And yet you still leap at shadows so frightfully that you cannot even keep a conspiracy together for more than a week!"

Azula scowled and half-rose in her seat. "Those traitors! I knew that they couldn't be trusted! I'll have them incinerated for this!"

Jeong Jeong sighed. "We may have to send you away from the palace."

"What? No!" Azula cried, protectively cradling a stray cushion she grabbed from the floor. "The palace is mine! It was always meant to be mine! He gave it to me!"

"I cannot make this decision myself," Jeong Jeong said, "As regent, I must wait for the blessing of the Fire Lord. But when he returns, we will discuss this further."

"Fine!" Azula snapped. "When my father gets back, we'll see how--" she broke off and shook her head, slowly. "No, that's right. You locked him away. You took him from me!" Now she was angry, and her nurses stepped forward to usher Jeong Jeong out of the room. He took his leave and went back to the garden to practice. And meditate.

Meanwhile, in Ba Sing Se, Iroh was preparing for guests. This was normal, as his tea shop the Jasmine Dragon was one of the most popular in the Middle Ring. He had a steady stream of guests from all rings and from outside the walls, and did not expect this day to bring any fewer.

The first surprise came in the morning, when a group of familiar people stepped through the door. "Well, well," Iroh said, opening his arms wide. "Sokka! Suki! Toph! Who are your friends?"

"Hi, Uncle Iroh!" Sokka said familiarly. "These are Lin Yim and the Three Tigers of Liangshan. We picked them up in a marsh outside town."

"Hunh," Iroh said thoughtfully. "Well, that sounds very interesting. Why don't you come have some tea?"

He installed them in a private room and brought them a pot of jasmine tea. The Three Tigers introduced themselves as Mao Hu, Gu Win, and Wang Ying. "Do you know anything about Counselor Ma Feng?"

"Ma Feng?" Iroh said thoughtfully, stroking his beard. "Yes, I believe I do. He believes that the Earth Kingdom should not forgive the Fire Nation and should strike back while they have the chance. The White Lotus society is attempting to change his mind."

"Well, one of his friends has been extorting the villagers in order to suck up to him," Suki said.

The Three Tigers nodded fierce agreement. Gu Win started an impassioned description of the wrongs caused by Su Ten, the governor who had put together the birthday gifts the Tigers had seized.

"Well," Iroh said when she was done, "That certainly sounds like something we should look into."

"We were hoping to get in touch with the Avatar," Wang Ying said.

"Ah, the Avatar," Iroh said with a sparkle in his eye. "Well, I have not seen Avatar Aang since the war ended, but I am sure that we will be able to find him. Now, what about you, young lady?" he asked Lin Yim.

Lin bowed slightly in her seat. "I'm also looking for the Avatar, sir," she said. "My name is Lin Yim, from the village of Ming on the Chalcedony River."

"And why are you looking for the Avatar?" Iroh asked.

"Well," Lin started to explain, "I'm--"

"Uncle!" someone yelled from the outer room.

Iroh frowned briefly, then laughed as the door was pushed open. "Nephew! Welcome back to Ba Sing Se. What is that hat you're wearing?"

Zuko, for his part, stopped inside the door and stared at Lin Yim. "What are you doing here?"

Lin's eyes sparkled as she turned to him. "What are _you_ doing here, 'Lee Yaozhong'?"

"Oh, uh..." Zuko said, flustered.

"C'mon, Zuko," Sokka said, "what's going on? I thought you were talking up stuff with Admiral Kinzo back on the border."

"Uh, that's kinda... complicated," Zuko said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well," Iroh said, "you're not going to tell the story without tea. Sit down and drink some."

Zuko sat. Then he frowned at the Three Tigers. "Who are you?"

Mao Hu puffed out his chest. "We are the Three Tigers of Liangshan!"

Toph pointed quickly and said, "That's Large Tiger Mao Hu, Lean Tiger Gu Win, and Stumpy Tiger Wang." She paused just long enough for him to get huffy, then finished, "Ying."

"Oh." Zuko blinked at them. "Hello."

"We're Earthbenders from the marsh of Liangshan," Wang Ying grumbled. "We protect the people of the village from the ravages of the ruling class."

"Oh," Zuko said again. "That sounds... good, I guess."

"This is my nephew Zuko," Iroh said, giving up on Zuko's good manners. Zuko, reminded, bowed.

"Fire Lord Zuko," Toph pointed out.

"Toph!" Zuko said as the Three Tigers gasped in surprise. He looked suspiciously at Lin Yim when she didn't react.

She shrugged. "Song told me before I left."

"Why'd you leave Yuncheng?" Zuko asked. "Is your aunt okay?"

Lin threw up her hands. "Ugh, she's fine. She didn't even teach me anything, just had me doing drills all day that didn't even work. I decided to leave town and find the Avatar instead."

"Why'd you need to find the Avatar?" Suki asked.

"Oh, uh," Lin said, "Well, it's because I'm an Airbender."

Everyone at the table except Zuko gasped.

"And my aunt is an Airbender," Lin explained, "So I went to learn Airbending from her, except I haven't learned how. So I'm hoping that the Avatar can teach me."

Toph nodded. "Sure, I mean, Twinkle Toes had the best training in the world for Earthbending, so I guess he's picked up a few training tips."

"Hey, what about his _Firebending_ teacher?" Zuko said.

"Well, you win some, you lose some."

They were distracted by a scuffle outside the door. "I still don't think this is a good idea!" someone said.

"Well, I think that tea will get us settled, and then I can read the tea leaves," someone said as the door was slid open. Iroh frowned and stepped forward, but the young woman who had just spoken looked through the door and stared. "Hey, Sokka!"

"Meng!" Sokka said.

"Lin!" said a woman next to Meng, just as startled.

"Aunt Wing-chun," Lin said, guiltily.

"Earth King! Where's the bear?" Toph identified the man in a cloak.

"Uh, hi, everyone," Kuei said.

The last figure in the doorway was staring. After a moment, she said, "Iroh?"

"Ursa," Iroh said.

"MOTHER?"

"... Tea," Meng said, taking in everyone's expression and the fact that Zuko was about to faint.

"Tea," Iroh agreed, and went to fetch another pot.

Elsewhere, Aang was flying north again from Kyoshi island. Appa turned to follow the long coastline of the sea, past the stone Wulong Forest where Aang had defeated the Phoenix King. As they neared Jining, Aang could see the official flag of the Fire Lord on one of the boats in the bay, and he brightened. "Hey, Zuko's here!" he said to Appa.

Appa lowed happily and started circling the boat. He was fond of Zuko. The sailors on the boat looked startled as they came in for a landing, but they stood back respectfully and didn't start firing.

"Flamey-o, everyone!" Aang said. "I'm Avatar Aang. Can you tell Zuko--er, the Fire Lord that I'm here?"

The sailors looked among themselves, then one of them stepped forward and said, "You'll have to ask the captain about that. I'll go get him."

"Thanks!" Aang waited on the deck while the sailor disappeared into the superstructure of the ship. When the sailor returned, he was trailed by an older man who bowed suspiciously at Aang. "Avatar Aang?"

"Flamey-o, hotman!" Aang greeted him.

"Um... yes," the captain said. "I'm Captain Jee of the Fire Lord's personal ship. How can I help you?"

"I was just passing over on Appa," Aang said, "And I thought I'd stop in and say hi to Zu--to the Fire Lord."

"That's... very kind of you," Captain Jee said, looking nervous.

"So can I see him?" Aang asked after a pause.

"Uh... why don't you come inside, Avatar," Captain Jee said.

Before the end of the war, Aang would have been nervous about following anyone from the Fire Nation into a warship, but this was Fire Lord Zuko's personal ship, so he felt all right. Captain Jee led him to a small cabin and offered him some tea, then sounding very reluctant to talk, said, "I'm afraid the Fire Lord isn't here right now."

"Oh," Aang said, disappointed. "Do you know when he'll get back?"

"Not... precisely," Jee said. "He said he had some things to do in the Earth Kingdom. He left a little over two weeks ago."

"Oh!" Aang said. "I bet he's gone to visit his uncle in Ba Sing Se."

"He didn't mention Ba Sing Se," Captain Jee said, "Though if he is there I hope his uncle will send him right back here. We've been missing him for some of the negotiations."

"Well, how about I go to Ba Sing Se?" Aang asked. "It'll only take me a couple days riding on Appa. We'll find him and tell him you want him to come back."

Captain Jee looked very happy. "That would be a big relief, Avatar. Thank you."

Aang said his goodbyes and jumped on Appa's back, and together they set off for Ba Sing Se.

Meanwhile, in Taku, Healer Song had finally arrived at the Healer's Institute. The greenhouse showed signs of recent repairs, the village nearby was full of people, and the old healer who ran the Institute was happy to see her.

For days and nights, Song learned all about the herbs in the Institute, how to grow them and how to use them. The old healer let her read all her books, and taught her the proper way to compound her special cat food, and how to treat headaches and bone fever and all kinds of ailments.

When she had been there a little more than a week, there was a commotion in the village, and two of the village guards brought a tall woman in Fire Nation armor up to the Institute. "This Fire Nation soldier demanded to see you," one of the guards said. She looked as though she would be happy to throw the Fire Nation woman out on the slightest pretense.

"How can we help you?" Song asked politely.

The Fire Nation soldier bowed. "Please, healer, even in the Fire Nation we have heard many things about the Herbalist Institute at Taku. Your knowledge of healing herbs is renowned. I have been sent to beg your assistance."

"Our assistance?" Song asked. "With what?"

"Please, miss," the soldier said. "It is a matter of utmost delicacy. May I speak with your master?"

Song shrugged and led the soldier to her teacher, who was just getting up from a nap and petting her cat. "Why, hello, there," the old healer said. "Have you come to say hi to Miyuki?"

"Uh," the Fire Nation woman said, "No. I'm here to ask for your help."

"Well of course, dear," the herbalist said. "What seems to be the trouble? Moon cycle giving you pains?"

"No, not for me," the soldier said. She looked desperately at Song, who shrugged. "I ask on behalf of the Fire Nation."

"Oh, well, that's different," the herbalist said. "I recommend one teaspoon of dried elf's root for heartburn. Song can show you where to pick it."

"Hnnnnnnn..." The Fire Nation woman took a deep breath, then bowed deeply. "Learned Herbalist," she said, "I have been sent by the Regent of the Fire Nation to ask--to beg that you return with me to the capitol for a mission of mercy."

"Oh, dear, I can't travel all that way," the herbalist said easily. "Who would feed Miyuki?"

"But..." The soldier looked stricken. "But we need your skills and your expertise! Someone who is dreadfully ill needs your help!"

"Oh, well, that's all right, then," the herbalist said. "You should take Song with you."

"Song?" The Fire Nation woman looked confused.

"I'm... Song," Song said, "Song Jiang, from Yuncheng town in Shandong province. But I'm not--"

"Please," the soldier said, "Your coming to Caldera with all your knowledge will be like... like timely rain."

"Um," Song said. "I'm not fully trained..."

"Sure you are," the herbalist said. "I've taught you everything I know, and you have all of my books."

"I've only been here a couple weeks!" Song protested. "That's not how learning works!"

"Please!" the Fire Nation woman said. "This is our most desperate hour! You're our only hope!"

"Errgh, okay, fine," Song said. "I'll take my books and see what I can do. But really--"

"Thank you!" the soldier said. "Come with me!"

So Song Jiang packed up her things and her books and a bag of herbs and left Taku for the Fire Nation.

Meanwhile, in the Southern Water Tribe, everything was going very well.

Back in Ba Sing Se, everyone had mostly recovered and the whole company was drinking Iroh's tea. Zuko was awkwardly hovering next to his mother, raining questions on her as she sat silently and watched him with a smile on her face.

Finally she started to explain. "I was banished for supplying your father with the poison that killed Fire Lord Azulon," she explained. "I did it to save your life."

"Why would you need to kill the old Fire Lord to save Zuko's life?" Sokka asked.

"Fire Lord Azulon was not the most rational man," Ursa said. "He had ordered my husband to kill our son in return for an insult Ozai had given him."

"Eesh," Suki said.

"So I left, and traveled to the Earth Kingdom," Ursa said. "I stayed as far away from the fighting as I could, a refugee, working my way to Ba Sing Se. The first time I came here I did not stay very long."

"Let me guess," Toph said, "You found the Dai Li to be incredibly creepy?"

Ursa paused significantly, which was as good as a yes. "So I wandered in the East for a while, then eventually met Kuei and Bosco, who brought the news that Ba Sing Se had fallen to the Fire Nation. Since all roads seemed equally unsafe, we went West again, carefully, until we heard that the Fire Lord had fallen to the Avatar." She stared into her tea. "I was unsure what to do next, and Kuei did not seem disposed to stop traveling, so we kept to the road until we met Wing-chun, and then went to ask Aunt Wu for her advice."

"And she told them to go to Ba Sing Se," Meng added, "And to take me with them."

"A good thing, too," Iroh said, bringing around more tea. "The Avatar will be happy to learn that there are more Airbenders in the world."

Lin and Wing-chun blushed. "And maybe," Wing-chun said, "the Avatar can teach you what I could not."

"And it seems the Earth King's word is necessary," Iroh continued, "In sorting out some of the negotiations about the Fire Nation colonies to the west."

"Oh," Kuei said, "Er. Yes."

"Right," Zuko said, looking abashed.

"So," Iroh said, smiling slightly, "It's a good thing that you came to Ba Sing Se, nephew, to meet the Earth King."

"And remember," Sokka said, "In just _two_ months, now, we're all going to the North Pole for the New Moon festival, _right?_ "

"Sure thing, Sokka!" Aang said from the doorway. "Woah. What'd I miss?"


End file.
